Connecting People
by Sjokolade
Summary: It's the annual summer school festival and this year it's full of surprises! 4 of our favorite guys are competing for the title of Mister Namimori middle school and, oh, Yamamoto sort of accidentally confessed to Hibari... 8018
1. Chapter 1

**Title**: Connecting People  
**Pairing**: 8018 (that's Yamamoto x Hibari)  
**Warnings**: boy's love!  
**Disclaimer**: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! And the title of this story is, yes, the same as the slogan for the Nokia company, which I don't own either (my cell is a Nokia, though – marvelous little device, real user-friendly)

**Author's note**: I started this story just for fun while I tried to think of a good way to piece together my other story, and then, before I knew it, suddenly I had a full chapter! I've had the idea for quite some time too, so I decided to post it.

Ok, before you start reading, I need to explain about Japanese cell phones and school festivals… First, about the phones; Japanese cell phones use e-mail addresses rather than phone numbers to send messages and you're charged by the number of letters in your message. There are three main distributors of cell phones in Japan: Vodafone, au and DoCoMo (in ascending order of fanciness and expensiveness), and they always have a selection of student discount phones available. The sort where you pay 1 yen for the phone itself, but then you become tied to a particular payment plan for a minimum of 12 months.

School festivals are held in summer, usually in the beginning of August. The classes are divided into 4 teams across homerooms and years: red, blue, yellow and green, which compete against each other in sporting events and decorations. All homeroom classes make their own event or attraction, such as for instance a play or a small restaurant, and compete against each other to be the best or most visited.

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**Chapter 1**

On the first Friday of the rest of his life, Yamamoto Takeshi accidentally pressed the 'send message' key on his cell phone.

He hadn't meant to – really, he hadn't.

The message he had sent was of quite a private and personal nature, of the sort that anyone and practically everyone spends hours and hours on concocting and puts all of their hearts into writing with the full intent of never _ever_ actually sending to the prospective recipients. They're the hate letters you write when you're angry with someone, the pages of unadulterated honesty that you only dare to confide in your diary and the speeches you practice in front of the mirror on the off-hand chance that you'll one day have the opportunity to meet someone famous. It was a message like _that_.

Only Yamamoto's message was none of these things, and he hadn't spent more than maybe 15 minutes on it, though he had typed and re-typed it three times before he was satisfied and saved it as a draft. Then he had put the correct address in the 'send to:' bar, just to make it seem more _real_, as if he really _was_ going to send it – and then he accidentally hit the wrong button on the tiny key-pad of his phone and the message went up, up and away.

But that was only the half of it, because that wasn't even how it had all started. It started the day before that, on the last Thursday of baseball practice before the school festival.

* * *

Classes ended early that Thursday and so did most of the clubs. Even though Friday was the day that was officially set aside for making last-minute preparations, Yamamoto could see students practically everywhere who were still perfecting their dance routines and chatting with each other as they painted decorations and cut out paper flowers as he was heading back from practice.

He grinned; excited because everyone else seemed as excited that he was.

Yamamoto was dedicated whole-heartedly to bringing home the gold on Sports Day and so he didn't have any last-minute chores, but there was one last thing he had to do before he could go meet Tsuna and Gokudera and that was to name two candidates for the Mister and Miss Namimori pageant. Everyone a school had gotten a small card from the festival planning committee with one pink and one blue dotted line – with just enough space to write down the names of one girl and one boy – which had to be put in the committee's mail box before 5 o'clock that Thursday.

He had deliberately put it off until he could jot down the two names in full view of absolutely no one but himself; and that, he took a quick glance around, was now.

He found a suitable, sunny spot in the dry brownish grass just outside of the school's main entrance and fished out the card and a pen from his bag. It was early August and a heat wave of unprecedented proportions had hit Namimori like a flash flood. He reckoned he'd probably be as red as a beet by the end of the festival week.

So, the two best-looking people at Namimori middle school…

Pink line first; hmm, that would be Sasagawa Kyoko. Absentmindedly he wrote down her name on the pink line. Easy as nothing…

And on the blue line… Well, there was no question really. Yamamoto grinned, bit his bottom lip, felt a little silly, grinned a little bit more and then wrote the name he had wanted absolutely no one to see him write.

He was half-jogging down the hallway to post the Miss/Mister card – the mailbox was attached to the wall outside the room that served as the festival planning committee's head quarters during July and August – and he was nearly there – and just in time, too, because it was already a quarter to 5 – and he didn't see Hibari Kyouya until he bumped into him from behind.  
An incident such as this was usually the last thing any ordinary student of Namimori middle school remembered before awakening in the infirmary or, if Hibari was in a bad mood, the hospital. Accidentally bumping into Hibari Kyouya qualified by public consent as a 'near death experience'.  
Hibari clearly hadn't seen him coming either because he stumbled forward and dropped his own card, which he had just been about to put in the box. It fluttered to the floor and sailed to a halt by Yamamoto's shoes.

"Oh man, sorry, sorry!" Yamamoto laughed apologetically and bent down to pick up the card. Because he wasn't afraid of Hibari, he didn't stop to ponder the lack of proper Hibari-like response and therefore, didn't think to look up. And, because he didn't look up at that moment, he didn't see how Hibari's entire body suddenly tensed and his one hand – an empty and unarmed hand – made to reach forward. The moment lasted no longer than a thunderbolt.

Yamamoto took the card between his thumb and forefinger and was about to hand it over to Hibari, but then he read it, automatically because it was right there in front of him when he held it up and not at all on purpose, and froze. There was only one name on the card, scribbled in a careless but neat handwriting that covered the entire space: 'Yamamoto Takeshi, the baseball club'. _His_ name!  
Yamamoto looked quickly up.

Another person might have blushed, laughed a little perhaps or tried to joke it away. Everyone at school had to nominate someone, but to just write _one_ single name in big letters… But Hibari's cheeks only took on the faintest pink color and, as perfectly composed as ever and always, he neatly picked the card out from between Yamamoto's fingers.

"Well," he coughed lightly and glanced absentmindedly at his wrist watch, "…just in time." He slipped it into the box, turned nonchalantly on his heel and sauntered away, calm as the clouds.

Yamamoto stared after him, his mouth slightly agape, and then, when he couldn't see him anymore, he started to laugh. He looked down at his own card; 'Sasagawa Kyoko, 2 – A' and under, on the blue line, 'Hibari Kyouya, head prefect' with a small, barely readable note added, crammed inside a parenthesis, 'don't know his year or homeroom, but you know the one'.

Still grinning widely he slipped it into the box. Who would've thought…

* * *

He wrote the infamous message exactly 2 hours afterwards, sitting by himself in the sun with his legs crossed on Tsuna's porch.

Gokudera was chasing Lambo around the garden, because he had snatched the watermelon Tsuna's mother had bought for them, and Tsuna was in the kitchen to get them some juice and a plate for the melon seeds.

He typed in the first combination of suitable words that sprung to mind but they sounded odd and random, so he re-typed it. Better, he thought, but it still sounded weird, not natural-like, when he read it out loud inside his own head – so he re-typed it a second time and this time he was satisfied and saved it as a draft.  
He chuckled at his own enthusiasm as he sat there, alone for the moment. Not like he would ever _send_ it. Still though, he decided with a small, firm nod to himself, it felt right to have written it.

He didn't have Hibari's address, but later, after the sky was dark outside and he and Gokudera were about to leave, he turned to Tsuna while Gokudera was busy tying his shoelaces and, straining to look as casual as he conceivably could, he asked, "Hey, err, Tsuna. Listen, you don't happen to, err, have Hibari's cell phone address… do you? He-he," he laughed awkwardly, scratching his neck.  
Mentally, he was rolling his eyes. Nice job; that sounded _really_ casual…

Tsuna cocked his head in surprise at this unexpected request. "Hibari's…? I think so." If Tsuna found it odd that Yamamoto would want that particular address, he did at least have the grace not to mention it, but obediently found his own phone in the pocket of his jeans and scrolled down a list of contacts. "Yup, here it is. Reborn put it in after that first time we met him in the reception room." His shoulders shuddered a little at the memory.

Yamamoto felt his cheeks grow a little hot at that particular memory and silently prayed that no one would notice. Because that was when he had first met Hibari…  
Incidentally, it was also the first time he had met Hibari's collapsible tonfa… with his face. Still though, clouded as it was (he'd been knocked out, after all) and nearly a year old, it was a special memory.

He had heard so much about him in advance – mostly from the seniors in the baseball club. And he'd seen some of the other prefects, the big guys, who all looked like they were perfectly capable of doing very small sums and smashing very big things. They were pretty mean, most of them, and seemed really full of themselves, just because of their impressive size and that damn red arm-band that allowed them to do as they pleased – or so they seemed to think, anyway.  
But Hibari wasn't like that. He wasn't full of himself. He was just… fearless; confident in his knowledge that he was stronger than everyone else – because he was. He didn't strut, he didn't brag and he seemed very much capable of doing big sums or, alternatively, taking over the world. Hibari was the coolest person Yamamoto knew of.

He was also very, very beautiful.

* * *

The next morning, on a hot and lovely Friday, Yamamoto accidentally sent the message while sitting cross-legged in a square of sunlight on the classroom floor. He reread it to himself, smiling, again, and feeling a little silly as he put in the correct address. He hadn't seen Hibari yet that day, and hoped that he would.  
To think that he'd nominated _him_...!

Around him the classroom was buzzing with activity. Their homeroom attraction this year was a play and the entire room had been transformed into a stage, with props everywhere and curtains hanging down from the ceiling. Yamamoto wasn't in it, though, and neither were Gokudera or Tsuna. But still Tsuna was running to and fro like the rest, laden down with heavy props that no one else wanted to carry or performing chores that no one else wanted to do. Just like last year. Poor Tsuna…

He had just decided to get up and help him and pressed to 'save draft', or he thought he did – only, as he stared at the little display in horrorstruck disbelief, he realized that wasn't what he'd done at all! He'd pressed… 'send message'! He had sent it – 'your message has been delivered!' – and now it had been sent, to Hibari!

He had just sent the silliest message in the universe to the un-silliest person in it!

_Uh oh!_

He was on his feet in an instant.

"Hey, where are you going?" Gokudera cast him a puzzled look from where he sat perched on the window still, but Yamamoto didn't answer – he was already on his way through the sliding doors and out into the hallway. He bolted past colorful paper decorations and flower wreaths and excited fellow students, up a flight of stairs and down the corridor where he would find the reception room and, hopefully, Hibari who, hopefully, wouldn't be holding his cell phone when he did.

He wasn't.

When Yamamoto barged through the door unannounced, Hibari stood alone in the middle of the floor and looked like he was on his way over to the window. On the couch lay a black, expensive looking cell phone – all by itself.

Hibari looked at him with raised eyebrows, momentarily surprised by the sudden intrusion. "Oh. It's you," he said simply, in a tone of voice and with an expression that Yamamoto couldn't read.

He hesitated. He looked at the phone. He looked at Hibari. Would he make it? If he just went for it right now, would Hibari be able to –?  
Hibari looked at him back. Then he looked at the phone – and then he seemed to get it…

Hibari dived for the cell phone. He could just about very nearly touch with his fingertips, when his brief flight was interrupted by Yamamoto who tackled him sideways like a football player with what felt like roughly the force and speed of a mini-van. The air was pressed rather painfully from his lungs and as he lay gasping for air with Yamamoto on top of him Hibari felt like a gold fish, bulging eyes and all.

The phone fell down from the couch and hit the carpet beside them with a soft 'thud'.

"Sorry," blurted Yamamoto, "but I wasn't gonna send it and then _whoosh_ I had. I think."  
"What," panted Hibari through gritted teeth, "are you blabbering about?!"  
"That message I just sent you! I didn't mean to send it!"  
"Get _off_ me!" Hibari squirmed under him on the floor. He did _not_ look like he was in a particularly diplomatic mood.  
"I just need to borrow your phone for 2 sec –"Yamamoto tried to explain, then he drew his breath in sharply as Hibari kneed him in the small of his back.  
"You can't have my phone!"

Yamamoto was in every aspect a do-first-think-later kind of person. It was why he was such an excellent sports man and why he was such a natural with a sword. It had also gotten him into a hell of a lot of peculiar and awkward situations in the past, conversational-wise.

But he didn't think for a second before doing what he did next, and, when he thought about it later, he felt he could blame it partly on his personality. Before Hibari managed to wiggle his arms out from where they had been pinned to his side by Yamamoto's thighs, Yamamoto had grabbed his shoulders in a firm grip and kissed him on the lips.

That shut him up.

Hibari's _second_ thought as Yamamoto kissed him was that he had very nice and comfortable lips; soft and dry and not chapped even though it was summer. It was a thoughtless kiss; a spontaneous gut-feeling kiss that said many things and was a world apart from what Hibari had previously had the misfortune of being on the receiving end of.  
His _first_ thought was closely linked that particular incident, though to the oblivious mind-reader the connection would probably be rather vague. It was 'why me?' It might help the mind-reader to know that Hibari had gotten his first kiss on a face that was smeared with dirt and his own blood while his hair was full of pink little petals that Hibari later realized were never really there.

Mukuro's lips had not been comfortable, certainly they had not been nice, and neither had his tongue or his teeth, but Hibari had still somewhat enjoyed the strange sensation in a way, though he strongly suspected the three broken ribs he'd had might have put a damper on the overall experience.  
And here he was again, pinned to the ground by someone else's body with someone else's lips pressed against his own. Why-o-why…

But with all of his ribs intact, if perhaps a little bruised from being tackled by someone from the baseball club, and none of those stinking flowers around, Hibari had to admit that being kissed wasn't half-bad. It probably helped with the lack of blood, too, he thought.

When Yamamoto kissed him again it was deeper, bolder. It felt a lot more like it was on purpose this time. Encouraged by the lack of violence he had probably been expecting, Yamamoto slid a strong callused hand under Hibari's thin summer shirt and up along his waist, pulling the shirt up with it. Hibari was just entertaining the thought of throwing Yamamoto Takeshi out of the window if he actually tried to take the shirt off – he was also thinking, vaguely, that he might want to take Yamamoto's shirt off – but then things took a quick and sudden and unexpected turn.

Yamamoto's upper body shot forward; he rolled sideways off Hibari's chest and with one quick movement his hand closed around the sleek, black DoCoMo.

"Got it!" exclaimed Yamamoto triumphantly and held the black little device up over his head like a trophy.

Hibari stared at him in surprise, his eyes looked wide and his mouth was slightly open – he had clearly not expected this outcome. Then he sighed and, getting up on his knees, began to straighten his tie and tuck his shirt back in. "Hm. Fine. I suppose you've earned the right to do what you came for, Yamamoto Takeshi."

Yamamoto felt simultaneously relieved, flustered and winded and attempted desperately to do the 'grandma in the shower' trick while he discreetly arranged his legs in an inventive and elaborate fashion so that Hibari wouldn't notice just how painfully much he'd let himself be affected by his own distraction maneuver.  
But it had worked!  
And he'd kissed Hibari Kyouya, which, in terms of danger, was roughly equal to poking a pit-bull in the eye with a sharp stick – and he lived to tell the tale! Although he probably wouldn't live for long if he ever actually told it.

Grinning happily he opened the cell, which was much fancier than anything Yamamoto had ever owned – what kind of middle school student owned a DoCoMo, anyway? But it was pretty easy to use. He found the inbox and, with Hibari's resigned gaze resting warily upon him, like a lion surveying a bothersome but hardly dangerous hyena, Yamamoto began to scroll through Hibari's messages in search of his own.

He had only just sent it. Shouldn't it be at the top?

Hibari had all his contacts catalogued with full names and even titles, and he seemed to be in contact with a lot of important people, because several names had titles like 'professor', 'doctor' and even 'constable' attached to them.  
He wondered what Hibari really _did_ in his free time.

As for his own message, however…

For a moment Yamamoto stared blankly at the phone. "It's, err… it's not… here," he finally said slowly. A faint blush spread on his cheekbones like bruises and he scratched his neck, looked up at Hibari. Hibari stood with his arms folded and a scowl on his pretty face. "I see," he said. It sounded ominous. In the next heartbeat he had his tonfas out. "You have three seconds, Yamamoto Takeshi."

"Oh, aw, come on…!" Yamamoto put up his hands like a robbery victim and backed one step, two steps, towards the door. "You can't be –"

"One!"

* * *

Anyone who has shared a secret, surprising-yet-not-completely-unexpected kiss with a person they can't avoid seeing the next day could have told Yamamoto that he had absolutely nothing to look forward to; certainly not from a short-term perspective. And, as it was bound to be, the first Saturday in the rest of Yamamoto's life turned out very, very awkward.

If someone had told him on that day that in a matter of 120 hours he would be confessing, in person, to a blind-folded Hibari surrounded by cobwebs and bloody bed-sheets… he would have laughed.

* * *

At 2 o'clock on Saturday morning, 7 hours and 15 minutes before he saw Yamamoto Takeshi again, Hibari Kyouya was awakened by his cell phone.

It was a small black DoCoMo thing, bought with no student discount (because the phones you got then were all tacky, he thought) and a perfect replica of the one that low-life, abominable waste of flesh known to the world as Rokudo Mukuro had destroyed. He said he'd done it because he didn't like to be interrupted when he was enjoying himself…

His initial annoyance at being dragged out of dream land at such an hour quickly faded into a mild puzzlement; there were two unread messages. The first was from DoCoMo, apologizing for the delayed forwarding of the next message, which was from an address he didn't immediately recognize and seemed to have been sent to his old address – the one he had used on his old phone, the one Mukuro had broken. As he read it, he quickly realized who it was from, and his eyebrows floated slowly up, up until his normally stoic visage looked genuinely astonished.

'_Hey Hibari, if that was weird today I'm sorry, I didn't mean to read it but I'm glad I did. See, I kind of wrote your name on mine__ too, ha-ha, go figure, right! I think you're really cool and, well, obviously, really pretty; very pretty, in fact. Sorry if that sounds weird, ha-ha, but sometimes, especially when you fight, it's like I'm hypnotized. Oh, and you don't know it yet, but you're just going to continue to grow cooler and more beautiful in the future! And this is Yamamoto Takeshi, by the way'_

He read it one time, two times; he blinked once, twice, nodded to himself, closed the phone and put it back next to his pillow. Then he promptly fell asleep with a miniscule smile curving his lips.

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**Author's note**: umh, hope you like it! I got the idea because it's summer, so there'll be festivals aplenty in Japan right now *le sigh*, and because I just read the chapter in the manga (it's 'Target 16: Kyoya Hibari', vol. 2, fyi…) where they first encounter Hibari. Yamamoto is doing all the 'inner talking' about who Hibari is and there's this one panel where he's just sort of looking at him and – ah! Just read it!

Please review! Reviews are the coolest inventions since cable networking and cell phone straps and they make my day _always_!


	2. Chapter 2

**Title**: Connecting People  
**Pairing**: 8018  
**Warnings**: boy's love!  
**Disclaimer**: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! The title is the Nokia slogan, which I also don't own, and also, for this chapter, I must add that I don't own the Chuck Norris Facts website and that not one of the quotes there has been submitted by me.

**Author's note**: well, this sure took long enough to write…! I shouldn't even be writing now. I'm sitting in class, actually, but you know how it is.

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**Chapter 2**

He froze.

He stood at the bottom of the staircase leading up to where the 2nd year classrooms were, and at the top of that staircase stood Hibari. They stared at each other. For a second, maybe two, maybe five, Yamamoto completely forgot how to breathe. …_Hibari!_

He blushed and opened his mouth to say, well, something. _Anything_. Whatever comes to mind, he thought quickly, _just say something!_

"Err…" he said. Hibari frowned, turned and promptly left.

* * *

From the second he opened his eyes that morning, Yamamoto couldn't decide which he hoped for the most – that he _would_ see Hibari again that day, or that he would _never_ have to see Hibari again. Ever. Or at least that Hibari wouldn't be able to see _him_. Yeah, that would've been good…

And so, of course, because he wasn't sure he really wanted to, he saw Hibari everywhere. And Hibari saw him. Everywhere.

Now, the 1st day of the festival wasn't actually until Monday, but by some unspoken agreement, everyone still showed up on Saturday for some last-_last_-minute preparations. The school was bustling with activity, as if it were any other day; and again, even though they weren't in the play that was being set up by their class, Tsuna, Gokudera and he had come too; to help out and to show a sense of solidarity and school pride that probably only he possessed.

It was nice – really, it was; only there was that thing with Hibari that made it a thrilling challenge for Yamamoto each time he wanted to or had to exit the confines of the classroom and which he couldn't very well tell anyone about.

He wanted to talk to him, but what do you say to someone like _that_?

Their brief encounter in the staircase that didn't really count as an encounter – they'd only just looked at each other – that happened first, maybe 5 minutes after he'd arrived. But at least he'd been by himself.

Their second encounter happened less than half an hour after that, as he and Tsuna headed downstairs to get soft drinks from the vending machine by the entrance. Hibari was there and he spotted Tsuna first. He looked very irritated and Tsuna's skinny frame froze up in mid-movement like a rabbit caught in the headlights. Then he spotted Yamamoto following right behind and his smooth features contorted into a chilly, menacing glare and again he left without saying a word.

Yamamoto lowered the hand he had almost raised to wave and imagined for a moment that he could really hear Tsuna's heart, beating quick and scared like there was a hummingbird trapped inside his ribcage, and saw his shoulders sag in relief. Tsuna's voice sounded very small and almost squeaky when he said "That guy is so scary…!"

During their _third_ encounter… Hibari tried to kill him.

Frown – scowl – …kill. Circle of life.

Yamamoto accepted, with a mental shrug, that he had been lucky, really, because with Hibari it could just as easily have been the other way around. Just, well, kill – which, in Hibari's case, also sort of counted as a circle of life.  
Or a natural instinct.

He had been on his way to the bathroom, quietly and carefully tip-toeing down the hallway, his head swiveling this way and that, eyes searching for Hibari. Then he rounded a corner, caught a glimpse of pale skin and flashing metal and, acting completely on reflex, he ducked – just in time to avoid getting his scull crushed by one of head prefect Hibari's collapsible tonfa.

Again he tried to say something, he wanted to, but his mind didn't work all of a sudden and he ended up opening and closing his mouth like a fish and making absolutely no sound. In retrospect he figured he ought to have felt a little pathetic, only he wasn't the kind of person who had thoughts like that. Instead he laughed nervously and concentrated on dodging and neither of them said anything.  
Well, at least he got to see him, thought Yamamoto, be near him.

Oh yes, the worst Saturday of Yamamoto Takeshi's young, eventful life passed by at glacier speed…

* * *

Finally, at the end of the day, Yamamoto took a deep breath and decided to confront him. He waited until Tsuna had gone home and Gokudera went to buy himself a microwave dinner before the supermarkets closed – he kept doing this even though Yamamoto had told him several times that he was more than welcome at the Takesushi any time, he wouldn't have to pay or anything. Then, once he was alone, he set course for the reception room.

Where Hibari would be…

Yamamoto was the kind of person who _did_ things, and he never stopped to think what he would say.  
He didn't know that Hibari had, in fact, gotten the silly message he'd sent him the day before without meaning to, but he knew he had humiliated him. He had just barged into the holy sanctuary that was his office, had taken his phone, read his messages – his private, personal _messages_, people just didn't _do_ things like that, it wasn't allowed. And then there was that other thing… Thinking about it made him blush, but he didn't really regret it. Just, it would've been nice if the circumstances had been a little different, that's all.

And he _liked_ him, he liked him so much.

In the end it didn't matter though, because, as if he'd somehow accessed his brain and read his thoughts – a feat he wouldn't have put past their lovely head prefect – Hibari had shut himself in the reception room, and there was another prefect, a big one, stationed out in the hallway who told Yamamoto he couldn't let him pass.

"Ha ha, you guys are really loyal, huh?" said Yamamoto cheerfully, feeling just a little relieved. "Hibari's really lucky he's got friends like you!"

The boy was quiet for a moment, as if contemplating Yamamoto's words. "Friends, huh?" He looked down and then up, apparently unsure of how to phrase himself. "I wonder…"

"Wonder what?" Yamamoto's eyes were wide and bright.

"About the friends part," said the boy. "I guess we all really admire him. Hibari doesn't take bullshit from no one, you know… But," he scratched his neck and looked down, suddenly embarrassed. "The truth is he beat us all up."

Yamamoto raised his eyebrows in surprise. "What did he do that for?"

"Well, you know, before we joined this little," he glanced briefly down his own front at the black uniform, "…posse, most of us were just really keen on fighting him. Word gets around, you know, about this guy who looks like he should be doing DoCoMo commercials but is really a total bad-ass. Might as well wear a target-sign. Works like a magnet on delinquents like us," he added with a chuckle. "Nothing gives you bragging-right like a good fight!"

"Aren't you still delinquents, though?" Yamamoto dryly pointed out with a half-smile.

The boy thought about this for a moment. Then he grinned. "Yeah, I… yeah, I guess we are. But, you know, it's not the same! We're doing a job helping Hibari keep the school and town disciplined; we've got a purpose now. It's not just wreaking havoc and picking on kids for fun anymore. When we're with Hibari we're not bullies, we're the Disciplinary Committee. 'S not the same."

Now it was Yamamoto who went quiet. It sounded nice, kind of like being part of a team.  
He felt he could appreciate what the boy was saying because he was describing something Yamamoto himself valued more than almost anything else in the world.

He grinned; excited, because he felt – just a little – like he understood more about Hibari now, and that he liked him even more.

* * *

On Monday he met up with Tsuna and Gokudera in front of the school gates to go together into the gym where the opening ceremony would be held. He couldn't see Hibari anywhere.

Ah, the school festival… For a flighty, lovely period of 6 days each August school stopped being boring and became a wonderfully, blissfully fun place to be with no classes and no extracurricular activities. Yamamoto loved it. It was like New Years' and Children's Day and his own birthday all rolled into one delightful week and, in his personal opinion, it was reason enough in itself to graduate to middle school. The other reason would be the extracurricular activities, because elementary school didn't have those and Yamamoto had been forced to be quite inventive in order to play baseball – real baseball – for more than the lousy two times a week that the local mini-team practiced.

Last year's festival had been awesome.

Yamamoto had spent most of the scorching hot days with his shirt off, paper flowers in his hair – blue, because their team was blue – and the legend 'Viva la Blue Team' scrawled neatly on his back. He had been nominated for the Mister Namimori, the only 1st year who had, but lost the title to the 3rd year captain of the boy's volleyball club. Also he had become something of a celebrity after stepping in for one of the 2nd year boys during a baseball game on Sports Day and turned the entire game around. I had been a record breaking win. Afterwards _everyone _at school knew his name.

Back then he didn't really know Tsuna, and he hadn't even met Gokudera yet, but he recalled that Tsuna had been the only boy who had helped the girls set up and run the little tea salon that had been class 1 – A's homeroom attraction that year. In retrospection Yamamoto vaguely wondered whether Tsuna had actually volunteered for the job – either way, he did remember feeling a little sorry for him because Kyoko's friend, Hana, had been in charge and she had been merciless…

They were talking about nothing and everything and the sports-day and festival-food when suddenly Tsuna's wide Bambi-eyes focused on something behind them and, as one, both Yamamoto and Gokudera turned their heads to find Miura Haru, dressed in an elaborate reproduction of a tropical island made, from the looks of it, mostly of papier-mâché and rags of dyed cotton fabric.

She grinned happily up at them. "Good morning!"

"Haru?" exclaimed Tsuna. He looked very surprised. "What are you doing here?" Then he squinted and cocked his head like an owl, "and what's with the weird outfit?"  
"It's a costume," explained Haru. She threw her arms out and twirled around on her feet like a ballerina. "I made it especially for your school festival!"  
"Ahaha!" Yamamoto clapped his hands together in applause. Things were never boring with Haru. "I think it looks cool! You're really into this cosplaying-thing, aren't you."  
But Gokudera rolled his eyes and glared. "…tch! 'The hell's wrong with you? Why are you here? You don't even go here!"

The answer came, unexpectedly, from behind them. "Actually, I invited her."  
"Ah, Kyoko!" Tsuna blushed like a tomato. Kyoko looked very pretty and very excited. "Haru loves festivals," she said, "plus she's really outgoing and good at talking to people, so I voted for her to be our show-hostess."  
"Oh, you're in the festival planning committee this year?"  
"I am! It's so much fun!"

Haru smiled like sunshine and beside him, Gokudera was shaking his head, lighting a cigarette.

* * *

The third most surprising thing about the opening ceremony of the festival that year was that none of the candidates for the title of Mister Namimori Middle School were 3rd graders. Normally they all were, but this year all four nominees were 2nd graders – or, as far as anyone knew, anyway, because no one was really 100% certain about the one of them. This particular candidate was, incidentally, the 2nd most surprising thing to happen that day, but of all the things that happened that day, nothing came more unexpectedly than the first candidate whose name was called for the Mr. Namimori…

"And now," announced Haru enthusiastically from the stage, "the moment we've all been waiting for: the candidates for Miss and Mister Namimori Middle School!"  
The audience broke out in wild applause at this – clearly this really was the moment a fair share of them had been looking forward to the most.  
"Alright! I will torment you no longer," teased Haru, "boys up first then!"

She really was good at speaking to people, thought Yamamoto. It had been two boys last year, and the two of them together hadn't been half as entertaining as Miura Haru.  
The opening ceremony of the annual school festival was held inside the gym, which was the only building big enough to fit everyone inside. And now they all sat crammed together on the floor, grouped by year and homeroom class, facing the wide main stage, where Haru was. The air was sticky and hot and very still.

"Our first candidate is a man of opposites," she said mysteriously, and the hall fell silent. "He is strong, yet gentle – fearsome, yet kind. He is super handsome and has a rather unusual job – he is 2 – A's Sawada Tsunayoshi!"

Tsuna's jaw dropped – and his wasn't the only one. He didn't look like his brain properly registered what Haru had just said until a bright orange spotlight suddenly found him and singled him out among his class mates like the prospective victim of a UFO-abduction, and people around him had turned to cast incredulous looks in his general direction. Yamamoto and Gokudera patted him on the back with big grins, and from the stage, Haru was beckoning for him to come up to her – she was positively beaming. It was very quiet at first and Tsuna blushed vehemently when, gradually, people started to clap their hands – none more vigorously than he and Gokudera, of course, and someone sitting in the back who was probably Sasagawa Ryôhei – as he got up and walked to the stage.

"Next up!" Haru continued. "He's a hot-headed bad-boy with a big mouth, he's really rude and has bad manners but, when it comes to his friends, he's as loyal as a golden retriever: will 2 – A's Gokudera Hayato please come up here and join me on stage!"

This time she had her audience with her. The hall erupted in wild cheers and enthusiastic applause. Next to Yamamoto Gokudera was scowling. "Who the hell does she think she is," he grumbled. "Introducing me like that…?! Geez, what a hassle!"

But he got up and stalked through the crowd. He cast Haru a murderous look as he got onstage, but she just smiled sweetly back at him. Yamamoto chuckled into his fist.

"Our third candidate is – ah, no surprise here!" Haru spread her arms enthusiastically. "The tall, dark and handsome sports genius: Yamamoto Takeshi!"

Again the hall exploded in loud cheers and clapping and wolf-whistling and Yamamoto scratched his neck, grinned and waved, as if they were all spectators at one of his ball games.

"And next, our final candidate!" Haru went on once Yamamoto had fallen in line next to Gokudera and Tsuna. Her smile looked suddenly a little strained– and this was when the day's next surprise came. "The cool and mysterious…" brief pause, "– and _veryveryscary_," she added quickly, almost as if on reflex, and swallowed, "Hi-Hi-Hibari Kyouya!"

If the students had been silent when Tsuna's name was called, it was as if the air itself had vanished now, leaving a void that was so much more than a mere lack of sound.

The spotlight swiveled to the back of the room to where Hibari was standing with his back against the wall, looking, if possible, even more baffled at hearing his own name called than Tsuna had been – though it didn't take much in his case, he could hardly be said to have an expressive face. He looked like he hadn't been paying any attention at all, but now his dark eyes were marginally wider than usual and he had raised one languid eyebrow in mild puzzlement. Clearly he had not been expecting this.

And then people hesitantly began to clap. Gradually, more people joined in. Apparently they felt as if they could now that it didn't seem like Hibari would hurt anyone. The prefects looked downright enthusiastic about it and Yamamoto wondered briefly if they had all voted for him as well. They probably had. He caught a few stray pieces of conversation from the girls grouped together in front of the stage ("He's scary, but he's really pretty, isn't he?" "Yeah, I always thought so, too!") and, from his left, Gokudera's disgruntled muttering, "who the hell voted for that guy?"

But Yamamoto, who had more friends than Gokudera and got more text messages, thought he might know the reason.

Hibari's popularity had experienced a sudden, unexpected and certainly unprecedented upwards curve on a chart that was normally colored black and avoided completely for the sake of general safety. Unless you counted fear and respect as a form of popularity, one might even say that Hibari's had recently _come into being_.

The reason for this had to do with what originally started out as a practical joke, started by two 2nd year boys who had found something funny on the internet. It was a website with ridiculous made-up facts about an American action-movie celebrity who, according to the website, was generally agreed to be the world's greatest human. Chuck Norris.

And that was when they had the idea with the text messages…  
As a joke they changed the actor's name to 'Hibari Kyouya' and sent a couple of quotes from the website to their friends.

"_Fact #1: There is no theory of evolution, only a list of creatures Hibari Kyouya allows to live_," was one, and, "_Fact #2: we live in an expanding universe – because everything is trying to escape from Hibari Kyouya_."

In less than 10 minutes they got back, "_Ha ha, no, no – 'there is no list of evolution, only a list of creatures who haven't __**met**__ Hibari Kyouya'_!"  
And the snow ball was rolling… Yamamoto had gotten one just that same morning, as a matter of fact (_"Fact #34: Hibari Kyouya does not get frost-bites, he bites frost (to death)"_).

Now, most of the kids at their school had never even heard about Chuck Norris but, in spite of that though, sending out messages with made-up facts about the head prefect soon became all the rage at Namimori middle school.

Yamamoto wondered whether Hibari knew about them.

At first he didn't look like he was going to come up to the front at all, but then, after a moment of glaring coolly at the body of nervous student, applauding him tentatively and uncertainly, he reluctantly detached himself from the wall and sauntered lazily through the crowd – directly through, in fact, making boys and girls scatter sideways like frightened cockroaches to avoid being in that deadly zone called Hibari's personal space.

He didn't spare Haru, Gokudera or even Tsuna so much as a glance as he brushed past them, but his dark eyes darted sideways and met Yamamoto's for just a millisecond. When he finally stopped, Yamamoto thought he stood an unnecessarily long distance away from the other three. He tried not to look at him.

There was a moment of silence, all eyes were on Hibari, and then Haru cleared her throat with that cute and almost delicate sound that only girls can produce before rounding on her four subjects like a military sergeant. "Ok," she said. "First you each have to answer one question! And…" she took a folded piece of paper out from an envelope, which apparently she had kept hidden in one of the palm trees of her costume and read it: "_and_ what your friends and fellow students really want to know about you is: 'what should your dream girl be like?'"

She turned to Tsuna with stars in her eyes and a dreamy expression on her face. "So, Tsuna, describe my –"she coughed, "I mean, describe your dream girl please." Then she blushed, and so did Tsuna, who leant marginally away from her as he replied.

"Umh, I like girls who are cute and, err, polite," his face grew even redder as he spoke and he shuffled his feet awkwardly. "And, umh, she should have a sweet smile and maybe like to cook…?"

He glanced upwards as if trying to think of something more, something good to say, when Gokudera interrupted them, loudly and rudely, both fists clenched at his sides.  
"Girls who aren't annoying _airheads_ and hang onto my boss like a friggin' leech!" he barked.

"I'm not a leech!" said Haru with great indignation and added, angrily, "_you're_ an airhead!" Then she proceeded to ignore him altogether and went directly onto Yamamoto instead.

"Ah, Yamamoto," she said pleasantly, "I'm sure this is of great interest!" She winked over her shoulder at the girls gathered in front of the stage. "Who is the girl of your dreams?"

Yamamoto grinned and scratched his neck. "Oh, ahaha! Girls are nice."  
He thought about Hibari and concentrated very hard on not turning his head to look at him.  
"They're cute. Normal girls are good!" He thought about being on top of him, about the smooth skin, the thin shoulders… "I guess it would be cool if she liked to watch sports!" he finished, rather sheepishly, and there was applause and girls squealing and shouting in loud voices about how much they loved sports.

Finally, at the end of their short line, as far away from them as he could get without actually being offstage stood Hibari. He did not look amused. Yamamoto's lips curved upwards on their own accord, he couldn't help it, because now _finally_ he could look! It wasn't strange to look at someone when they were talking, he could stare all he wanted.

Haru gave a small nervous laugh and cleared her throat. "So, umh, Hibari, who, err… what would your dream girl be like?"

Hibari closed his eyes in a resigned fashion and lazily crossed his arms. "I don't understand the question," he drawled.

Gokudera rolled his eyes, but Yamamoto chuckled. Hibari was just so… _Hibari_! Haru opened her mouth as if to say something, but then she closed it again with a miniscule shake of her head. "Right! Umh, right... Moving onto the girls then!"

It should have ended there. That was usually it – there were four nominees, who were presented during the opening ceremony, then they each had to answer a question and then the students voted again and the winner was announced at the closing ceremony. That was how it normally went, easy as pie.

But then Reborn showed up and that year, a lot of things ended up not going the way they normally did…

.

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**Author's note**: it's been too long since I checked out that Chuck Norris website, it's hilarious. If there is someone who _could _beat Chuck Norris, though, it would be Hibari Kyouya. Seriously! Anyways, hope you're enjoying this so far, this chapter was supposed to be twice as long so it won't be as long until my next update because I ended up pushing all the excess material over to chapter 3… So, dun-dun-dun! What does Reborn have in store for our heroes? And why on earth was Tsuna nominated for this grand title?

Reviews would brighten my day like a cancelled assignment ^_^


	3. Chapter 3

**Title**: Connecting People  
**Pairing**: 8018  
**Warnings**: boy's love! And Gokudera says 'screwed' once... I don't have to change the rating for that, though, right?  
**Disclaimer**: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! And I'm pretty sure the title for this is a Nokia trade-mark.

**Author's note**: if you are reading this, you're doing the material-world equivalent of saving a fairy's life – namely lighting up my gray everydays! Thank you so much for the reviews and for adding this to Favorites! Actually I didn't expect to get any at all, considering how long it had been since my last update, so I was really happy.

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**Chapter 3**

There was another surprise at the opening ceremony that year, before Reborn showed up, and the source of it was Kyoko.

"As for the _Miss_ Namimori, we have a very unique situation this year," Haru announced. She looked a lot happier now that she knew she wouldn't have to talk to Gokudera or Hibari again for a while. "I've been told that this has never happened before at your school," she said. "It seems…" there was a pause, and the students in front of her craned their necks. "It seems you have _all_ voted for the same girl!"

While the crowd laughed and clapped and cheered, for they all knew, of course, who the girl must be, Haru continued – almost shouting to be heard above the ruckus.  
"She is super-sweet, polite and honest and she's my best friend! She is 2 – A's Sasagawa Kyoko!"  
Kyoko came up, and, as he turned to congratulate her, Yamamoto caught a glimpse of a very red-faced Tsuna out of the corner of his eye.  
He _always_ got this weird look whenever Kyoko was around, thought Yamamoto. He smiled and imagined he knew something.

Well, this was where it should have ended, the opening ceremony.

Haru was fishing small white pieces of stiff paper out from one of the palm-trees of her eccentric outfit, scribbled in red and black writing. She glanced at one that might have said 'nominations' and put it at the back of the little stack, preparing for the day's next event while Kyoko was still receiving compliments and bowing deeply, saying thank you and thank you.

"Alright!" Haru waved her hands to get the crowd's attention. "You can vote for Mister until Thursday, and the same goes for Homeroom Attraction and Best Play." These last two were awards that were given to the homeroom classes with the most convincing attractions and the most well-done theatrical performances – everything went into the year book, so they were pretty prestigious prices to get. "Finally I'd just like to wish you a great festival and –"

Then suddenly, unexpectedly, a voice spoke. "Wait."

It was so small and young and the gym was so full of noise at that moment that no one ought to have heard it. And yet, they all did and, curious, they went quiet.

There was a little monkey perched on top of one of Haru's palm trees now, that hadn't been there before. It was the monkey that had spoken. Yamamoto thought it looked strangely familiar, sounded familiar, too.

So did Tsuna, apparently. "Ah! Reborn?!" he pointed. "What are you doing here?!"  
Hibari, who had been about to exit the stage, stopped in mid-movement and glanced back over his shoulder. His thin shirt looked almost transparent in the bright light filtering in through the high-set windows of the gym. "Hm?"

Yamamoto squinted at it. _What, the monkey was the little guy?_ Nah, he didn't see the resemblance...

"Oh, yes, I completely forgot to tell you," Kyoko said cheerfully to Tsuna. "I drafted your little friend, too!"  
Tsuna laughed awkwardly and his eyes darted quickly and nervously back to Reborn, as if he were some highly unstable substance about to go _boom_.

"Actually, there's been a change in the Mister-nominations," said the monkey matter-of-factly. It smiled and Tsuna shuddered.

Then his big eyes grew suddenly suspicious. "_You're_ behind this, aren't you?" he said – low enough so that only those onstage could hear him and with a look as if he had only just realized something. "I wasn't nominated at all, was I!"

The monkey's sly little smile widened marginally, "no, Sawada was really nominated." But Tsuna's accusing gaze didn't waver. "Of course, there _is_ another Sawada in the 3rd grade…" the monkey went on in a casual voice, "and his name just so happens to be Tsuruyoshi (_*AN: I highly doubt this is a real name_), but sadly he ate a bad pizza last night and is currently suffering from food-poisoning. It _could_ have been him that was nominated." The monkey shrugged its tiny shoulders. "Who knows?"

"A change?" Haru broke in – she hadn't heard anything and didn't seem to have noticed Tsuna's horror-struck expression. "But I thought –"

"Yes, the boys should prove that they're brave and strong enough to –"

"Oh for crying out loud! It's a _beauty-pageant_!" Tsuna interrupted him, arms spread wide-open. He looked from one to the other, searching for some back-up. "There's no need for any of your dangerous games!"

"Ah! Really, we're playing games?" Yamamoto's brain pushed the words out on pure reflex. He laughed. "What kind of games?"

Somewhere behind him there was a snort and Gokudera muttered, "Geez, you're such a _jock_!" and Yamamoto could practically _hear_ the look in his eyes. Hibari cocked his head elegantly and his slanting eyes had a hint of curiosity.

"You're going to be teaming up in pairs," announced Reborn in a loud voice so that everyone could hear, and in the instant that he did, Gokudera's hands were firmly clasped around Tsuna's bony upper-arm, tight as a vice. "And, starting tomorrow, you'll be competing in two different games!"

He had sat himself on top of a papier-mâché coconut that hung almost directly over Haru's head, and he had the full attention of every single person in the gym – something like this had never happened before, not at their school, and they watched with great interest.  
Only Tsuna wore the look of a man who knows Impending Doom is imminent and that resistance is useless.

But Yamamoto only vaguely noticed this, because he had just remembered that the next day was Sports Day, which meant Baseball Day, which was the one thing he had been looking forward to more than anything else for over a month… It didn't even cross his mind there and then that he would be paired up with Hibari Kyouya.

He needn't have worried, though.

"The first game, which will be held tomorrow, is… baseball!"

Yamamoto laughed, relieved, excited – _phew! Thank God_ – and punched the air victoriously.

"And the next will be held at one of the homeroom attractions."

"Which one?" called someone somewhere in the audience – everywhere, students were looking excited, nudging each other and whispering in quick, delighted voices at this unexpected turn of events.

"Actually, we haven't decided yet, because it's one of these guys who'll decide," Reborn jerked his thumb in the general direction of Hibari, himself, Gokudera and Tsuna. "See, these games come with a little extra catch!"

"Isn't it already a catch just to be _having_ these games?" Tsuna pointed out in a dark, resigned mumbling. "I don't see how this is supposed to help people decide which one of us is more handsome… Am I the only one who thinks this is weird?!"

"Don't worry, 10th! We'll wipe the floor with those morons!" Gokudera, apparently, wasn't listening to him either…  
"The catch is –"  
…and if Reborn heard a word of what Tsuna was saying he was doing an excellent job of pretending that he didn't. "Each team will get to decide one thing to add to the games that they think will be a handicap to the other team!"  
The crowd cheered – yes, this sounded promising! This could actually be great fun!

The monkey clapped its tiny hands together, "Teams! Pair up! You have 4 minutes to come up with a handicap for the other team!"

.

Yamamoto couldn't believe his own luck – although he wasn't entirely sure if it was of the good or bad sort. Either way, it was pretty unbelievable. Him and Hibari!  
They sat close together on the floor of the stage, or pretty close, anyway, and in 3 minutes and 40 seconds they were supposed to come up with something to _add_, something that would be a handicap to Tsuna and Gokudera.

Yamamoto tried not to smile too broadly or stare too obviously – even scowling as he did now, as he _normally_ did, Hibari still looked very pretty. He would get to be near him and maybe he'd have the chance to properly apologize for his behavior last Friday. Sure, Hibari hadn't even wanted to see him on Saturday, except to try and smash his face in, let alone talk to him, and he couldn't really see how on earth were they supposed to pull this off… but he would get to be with him at least, with Hibari Kyouya, together, and he smiled.

"If you don't stop staring, Yamamoto Takeshi, I will feed your intestines to dogs," said Hibari calmly without looking up.

Yamamoto laughed, but he quickly averted his eyes. _I can't help it_, he thought, but what he said was, "ah, he-he, any ideas on the weaknesses-thing?"  
Hibari yawned. "I don't care," he drawled lazily and confidently added, "they have too many weaknesses already. I will just beat them to a pulp anyway."  
_...Does he know we're playing baseball?_

As he began to jot down his own idea – his own sure-fire idea, they couldn't lose with this – Yamamoto wondered why Hibari was playing along. He'd expected him to hit someone and walk away a long time ago, or simply just leave. Yet, he was still here. Pretty unbelievable, really…

.

"Alright!" Haru unfolded the two pieces of paper she'd been handed.

"Let's see here… From Yamamoto and Hibari, they request that during the entire game, Tsuna will be playing outfield."

Behind her, Tsuna face contorted into a grimace of self-pity and dread. Yamamoto cast him an apologetic smile and shrugged helplessly – when it came to baseball he just didn't know how _not_ to do his best. And, as mean as it sounded, he knew that Tsuna's hand-to-eye coordination skills were way, _way_ below par… there was no way he'd be able to catch a tiny, hard baseball and then outrun him or Hibari. Not a chance.

"And Tsuna and Gokudera want… huh?" Haru squinted at the note and Yamamoto craned his neck unselfconsciously. "Err, they want the field to be covered in and/or surrounded by… cherry blossom?"

In the back of Yamamoto's mind something nudged and in front of him Gokudera was grinning and pointing triumphantly. "Hah!"

* * *

"I forfeit."

The air was getting dark and a little cooler, finally, now that the sun had nearly disappeared. The first day of the school festival was officially over and in only 4 hours, it would be Tuesday. Hibari was walking towards the school building, with Yamamoto trailing behind him like a lovesick puppy.

"Aww, what's up with that?" Yamamoto folded his arms behind his head and half-jogged a couple of steps so that he could walk next to Hibari. He grinned. Then he had a thought and his eyes darted upwards, "wait… _can_ you do that?"  
Hibari stopped. The school yard was empty except for them. He folded his arms and glared at something on the ground by his shoes.  
Yamamoto stopped, too. "Err, is everything –? "

"…I don't like cherry blossom," Hibari said finally.

_I don't like cherry blossom_?

Yamamoto wrinkled his brow. What kind of person – no, what kind of _Japanese_ person didn't like cherry blossom? That was like the patriotic equivalent of kicking a puppy. It was like not liking _rice_!

"So, err, you're like… allergic, or something?" he suggested vaguely. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a memory was waking up, the nudge – stretching languidly and considering if it should take another 5. Something about Hibari and cherry blossom, but he couldn't for the life of him remember what it was.

The corners of Hibari's lips curved downwards into a sour grimace and his eyes were cold and defiant as he glared up sideways at Yamamoto. "Yes," he said, "something like that."

* * *

When it finally hit him, there was roughly two and a half hours left of Monday evening and he found Gokudera as he was wandering home by himself past the park. Hibari had stayed behind at school to do work, though Yamamoto had no idea what sort of work that might be, considering that it was only the first day of the week and that the school festival was being handled by a separate planning committee. That guy sure was a mystery.

"Hey, Gokudera," he jogged to catch up. "I wanted to ask you something. It's kind of weird."  
"_You're_ weird," replied Gokudera lazily. And then he rolled his eyes because Yamamoto just laughed at him.  
"It's about Doctor Shamal. He trained you before, right?"

Gokudera shrugged. "Yeah, so?"  
"Well, that thing he does with the bugs that makes people really sick with strange illnesses," Yamamoto was gesticulating with his hands as he spoke. "Can they be cured?"

"Hmm," Gokudera's eyes narrowed in concentration as he pondered the question, then he firmly shook his head. "Nope; you can get medicines for most of them, I think. At least the ones that aren't lethal. But to be fully cured and all he has to treat you for it." Gokudera rolled his eyes. "And that womanizing quack only treats chicks. So you're screwed tomorrow, if that's why you're asking."

"He gave me something for my arm once, though," recalled Yamamoto, which rewarded him another eye-roll from Gokudera. "Idiot… That was aspirin." He produced a thin cigarette out of thin air and, as if by magic, it was suddenly lit, though Yamamoto didn't see any lighter. "He's got a locker full of it to make anyone who doesn't squat to pee go peacefully away without him getting fired." He shook his head. "He's the worst."

It wasn't a good answer, but Yamamoto thought Gokudera was being an unusually good sport by giving him one – because Yamamoto felt 99% certain that the idea with the cherry blossom on the field must have been Gokudera's.

* * *

By the time he got home, only 10 meager minutes remained of that Monday and Yamamoto felt exhausted. After mumbling a "g'night pops" through a wide yawn he went upstairs and, still yawning, opened the door to his bedroom… and nearly jumped backwards with a startled cry of surprise! Because there was someone already there – in his room, inside _his_ room, sitting on the still of his open window, which he _knew_ he hadn't opened.

"Ah! Hi-Hibari!"

Yamamoto clutched at his chest, his heart practically racing. "How, err, how did you get in here?"

"Irrelevant," replied Hibari nonchalantly and slid gracefully down from the window still. "Now, tell me how this game of yours works."

It was a demand. And when Yamamoto just looked at him confusedly (_what is he talking about?_) he didn't bother to elaborate or explain. He just continued to look at him with those pretty, dark eyes.

"Err… Do you – ah! Ahaha, you mean _baseball,_ don't you?" Then, "…what, seriously? You haven't played baseball before?"

The pretty, dark eyes narrowed. "If I had," growled Hibari through gritted teeth, "then I wouldn't be wasting my time here now, would I?"

Hibari would never admit that he didn't get half of what Yamamoto Takeshi was talking about. Yamamoto had a way of expressing himself when he was excited that consisted mostly of sounds like 'pow', 'whoosh', 'smack' and 'fuwah'. Contrary to popular practice, he didn't draw so much as a stick-man to illustrate his points, just talked – or _ranted_, more like.  
It was oddly fascinating to listen to…

Hibari stood in the middle of the floor, preparing to swing a make-believe bat to hit a make-believe ball. He wasn't enjoying himself – but he didn't hate it either, exactly. Yamamoto Takeshi was… _wellnot__**entirely**__awasteoffleshandair_. Not that he'd ever admit it, of course – but it was nevertheless an interesting way to spend the evening.

And then suddenly, as he prepared to move, Yamamoto was standing behind him. His arms stretched out alongside his, so close they were touching, encircling him in a sort of embrace and when he spoke, "no, see, you hold it like this," his breath tickled the small hairs at the base of his neck. He would have shivered if he had let himself. "And then you swing it," he didn't so much take Hibari's wrist as gently push them into an upwards swing, "like _whoosh_!"

They stood hip to hip, elbow to elbow, hard chest to sharp shoulder blades, warm skin radiating through their thin shirts and they swung the invisible bat in unison – again, once, twice, again and again.

Hibari wanted to punch him. Close, they were too close - ! Bite_crush__**push**__ him away_! But he didn't.

* * *

Yamamoto scratched the top of his head, muttering his thoughts out loud as they popped into his brain. "I'd ask Gokudera to distract him…. except he can't, of course…"

He sat on his own bed, stretching his long legs out in front of him, while Hibari remained standing. He'd told a seemingly completely disinterested Hibari about his short conversation with Gokudera earlier. Surely the girl-crazy doctor must have some sort of antidote or medicine of some sort lying around – if they could just figure out a way to get to it.

"Haru would probably be game, except she's running the show…" He shook his head, "nah, she won't have the time for that," his eyes floated upwards of their own accord, "…plus she really hates Dr. Shamal. Kyoko might do it, but she's in the festival committee, so she's really busy, too, I bet…"

He meant to look down again, but stopped when his chin hit cold, hard steel. Hibari was suddenly very close and looked very irritated. "Don't you ever shut up?" he growled. "This is getting on my nerves…"

"Ahaha – take it easy, Hibari," Yamamoto smiled and gently pried those deadly weapons away from his immediate proximity, "I'm just trying to think of a way to get you those pills so we can play!"

Hibari's eyes narrowed. "Why is this game so important to you, Yamamoto Takeshi?"

Yamamoto grinned, but his eyes were serious. "Games are the most important things in the world," he said, as if it was the most obvious thing.  
Because he wasn't looking, he didn't see the quiet approval that stirred briefly in Hibari's dark eyes.

* * *

The solution came to them the next morning. In fact, it came wandering in through the school gates, and even though it was very nearly kicked out again (incidentally by Hibari), it stayed and eventually sort of saved the day.

But, well, it wasn't welcome at first…

Hibari's eyes were narrow slits of icy hatred and his voice was dangerous like a crouching panther. "What are you useless mongrels doing in my school?"

It was a quarter past eight in the morning on the 2nd day of the school festival. The day promised to be just as hot as it had been all week and the week before, but for the moment it was still bearable.

Except that _they_ had come…

"Hey, it's Duck!" Ken, the blond boy pointed and leered in a way that made his tongue hang out of his mouth.  
"It says 'visitors welcome' on the poster outside…" muttered the other, the one with the glasses. In spite of the brain-crushing heat, Chikusa still wore his white cap pulled down over his forehead and ears.

Hibari had never learned the names of Rokudo Mukuro's original duo of spineless, adoring maggots – he hated them both and didn't care at all what their names were, but he knew the girl's. Except he didn't really think it was her real one. She stood between and a little bit behind her companions, looking timid and a scared, like a squirrel that has just realized it's walked directly into a trap. She wore bright plastic sandals today, instead of her usual high boots.

"Uh, Ken… Chikusa," she said in a tiny voice. She glanced nervously up at Hibari, but wasn't able to hold his gaze even for a millisecond. The blond kid was picking his nose distractedly and Hibari's frown deepened.

_What a bunch of social rejects_, he thought somberly as he surveyed them. If he had not been so arrogant, there might have been a tiny voice somewhere in his mind, asking him dryly 'oh, and you aren't?', but he was so there wasn't. _Herbivores. Where does he find them…?_

He was thinking that he might want to knock out a few teeth before beating them to gravy and dragging them out by the eyelashes – not the girl, of course, he wasn't a complete monster – when the Herbivore King and his toothless groupies showed up.

"Ah! Chrome!"  
At the sight of Sawada Tsunayoshi, Chrome's delicate little face lit up a little. "Boss? Uh, we just… we came to…" she shuffled her feet nervously, scraped the dry asphalt.  
"'The hell are you morons doing here?!"  
"Ahaha, Gokudera, calm down –" _Yamamoto Takeshi_, "hi guys, long time no see!"

When he glared at them over his shoulder, Hibari first saw Yamamoto and the faint blush that spread on his cheeks when their eyes met, the discreet little wave, and then he spotted the dynamite that Gokudera had pulled out. His eyes narrowed...

"Don't worry 10th, I'll take care of this!" announced Gokudera confidently. But before he could take one step, however, and before Tsuna could grab onto the sleeve of shirt, Hibari had his tonfas out and was pressing the tip of one of them hard against his nose.

"The enforcement of Discipline," he said in a low, dangerous voice, "is the responsibility of the Disciplinary Committee."

Ken's wide, wolfish grin, which had looked excited when Gokudera stepped forward, as if he'd been wanting a good fight, suddenly faltered a little. He probably had his last encounter with Hibari Kyouya's _discipline_ fresh in memory.

But Hibari merely closed his eyes and turned to leave, it was getting much too crowded for his taste – it always did, somehow, around Sawada Tsunayoshi.  
"It says 'visitors welcome' on the poster outside," he drawled and meant it for Gokudera Hayato. "Or can't you even read, plant eater?"

"Blow it out your ear Hibari!"

Hibari smirked, pleased, and heard Tsuna's feeble attempts to calm his annoying friend down. "Ah, no – Gokudera, put those away! He'll bite us all to death!" Then, in a much friendlier voice, he said "Chrome, won't you come with us?"

Suddenly, there was a hand on his shoulder and Yamamoto's tall, calm presence was beside him. "Hibari, wait, I just thought of something –"  
He turned and pointed an excited finger at the wide-eyed girl who called herself Chrome...

.

Chrome liked the Boss the best. When he was there, she felt like everything was going to be alright.

But among the others, the truth was that she preferred the Cloud person – not because he was nicer than the others, because he wasn't, but because he never spoke to her and generally acted as if she wasn't there. Much the same way she had been treated for the most part of her sad, young life, but without the hurtful words and the cold void of the love that ought to have been there by default – yes, she knew how to be around him. And when they had been in the future, he had saved her life and been kind to her when Mukuro couldn't. Even in the present, Mukuro seemed to like Cloud – going to see him had been the very first thing he had wanted to do when they first came to Namimori that time way back when.

She liked the Rain person, too. She hadn't forgotten what he and the Storm person had done for her during the battle for the rings. He was calm and comforting in almost the same way as the Boss…

But when she saw the two of them together and saw how they looked at her, then glanced at each other before turning their heads to look at her again thoughtfully, she felt a tug of uneasiness. Rain said something with an eager grin, pointing at her. Cloud folded his arms across his chest and studied the ground for a moment, before giving a miniscule nod. They looked at her.

"Chrome? Hey, Chrome," Rain grinned broadly and beckoned her over, waving a cell phone in his hand. "Do you know how to use one of these?"

.

.

.

**Author's note**: Woohoo, Mukuro's Kokuyou basket-cases appear! I can't help it, I just have this romantic image of those kids, abandoned and unloved in that ruined building, clinging to each other and loving only Mukuro. So sad! Also, Chrome calls Hibari Cloud person in the future arc, so I'm assuming she doesn't actually know people's names. Oh, and I promise YamaHiba closeness in the next chapter. I just need to sort of set the premises…


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's note**: Surprise! I hope you haven't been holding your breath waiting for this one… But thank you, seriously, so much to everyone who has continued to read. I got a review just last week, actually, so that was touching. You guys are the best! Therefore I _really_ hope you'll enjoy this ^_~

.

.

.

**Chapter 4 **

"Oh, that guy? How could I forget…" Dr. Shamal touched his head and rubbed gently on the spot where Hibari's tonfa had once struck him. The gesture appeared unselfconscious. "Regular nut-case, that one," he muttered.

At roughly the same time Hibari's slanting, vigilant, bird-of-prey eyes caught the sight of Chrome, Ken and Chikusa, Yamamoto's wide, trusting, puppy-dog eyes caught the sight of Doctor Shamal…

"That girl was legal, you know!" he added self-defensively, in reference to something Yamamoto didn't know. "Or… well, I think she was… anyway! He didn't have to hit me."  
"He, err," Yamamoto scratched his neck and grinned – he didn't really get what Shamal was getting at. "Ha-ha, he's kind of a live-wire, that one. But I wanted to ask you something. Can you make it go away? You know, that cherry blossom-thing that makes him go '_fuwah'_ when he's around them?"

Shamal wrinkled his brow briefly, "'_fuwah'…?_" then he shook his head, "no can do, I'm afraid. Geez, you kids are slow! I – only – treat – girls! Ok?" He spread his arms, shrugged theatrically and gave Yamamoto a look that made him feel like a 5-year old. "'You get yourself one of _those_ and I promise I will tend to her every broken nail, you have my word."  
He turned to leave, apparently he felt that this conversation had gone on for quite long enough, but Yamamoto, who never ever gave anything up easily, followed after him like a trail of paper stuck to the sole of a shoe.

"Aw, come on, _please_? It'll only take a second and I'll, err, I'll buy you a beer! You like drinking, right? Or sushi! D'you like sushi?"

Shamal turned to say something unpleasant, but only someone with a refrigerator for a heart could possibly turn down Yamamoto Takeshi completely.

"Listen, kid," he began instead and placed a heavy palm on the boy's shoulder. "I'll go so far as to admit that your friend is _kind _of hot, ok?"  
At this Yamamoto clenched his fist without meaning to, as if by some mysterious reflex.  
"But even if you put a skirt on him and smeared on lipstick _that_ is one guy I won't treat, ever." He pulled his fingers through his hair. "I love the feisty ones – the lady folk, mind you – but that kid just friggin' scares me."  
He shuddered and Yamamoto's fist clenched again – then he had a flash of Hibari dressed in a girls' school uniform and his lips quirked with suppressed laughter.

Ok, so the Doctor himself was out of the picture… along with all of their friends. So… what other options were there?

If only they could find a girl!

* * *

"Uh, you guys? I'm not really sure if… I don't think this is such a good idea," Chrome tugged at the hem of her short skirt and glanced nervously up at the two boys.

They stood on a patch of dry grass in the shadow behind the main school building just a few feet away from where the window to Dr. Shamal's office was. Because of the smoldering, sticky summer heat it had been thrown open, more in a vain attempt to make the air inside go _out_ than to tempt the air outside into coming in.

Yamamoto smiled at her and patted her thin shoulder. "Ah you don't have to worry," he said reassuringly. "You just tell the doctor you want his number," he gesticulated enthusiastically with his hands while he talked. "It's my phone, so it doesn't really matter if he gives it to you. Then, while you keep him distracted, Hibari and I _sneak_ inside –" he made his palm flat and mimed a darting movement, "we _snatch_ the pills or whatever and _'pyuung'_, we'll be out before you know it!"

He looked expectantly from Hibari to Chrome and back again. It should probably not have surprised him as much as it did that neither of the other two looked as excited about this brilliant plan as he felt about it. "And then we get to play baseball!" How could it possibly get any better than that?

Hibari yawned lazily and scowled. "Please remind me again how this is easier than me beating the crap out of that inbred, bottom feeding piece of –"

"Because the Doctor has 665 other incurable things you can catch," Yamamoto pointed out delicately.  
He glanced at his wrist watch. "Plus, the game's in 2 hours." He didn't mean to grin so broadly, but the prospect of a sneak-in operation was just too thrilling – like in a spy movie! "This is our best option so far. Chrome, you're an angel – we're counting on you!"

Chrome sighed helplessly and, with a small whimper, disappeared, casting nervous looks over her shoulder at them as she went.

.

"Uh, excuse me…?" Chrome knocked tentatively on the half-open sliding door. She crossed her fingers and silently prayed that it would be empty. She poked her head timidly inside and then she quickly withdrew it again as Dr. Shamal slid elegantly into view. "Why, hello there, young senorita!"

_No such luck, huh… _"I-I just wa-wanted…" oh no, now she was stuttering – stop, _stop it_! "C-could I have your phone number, please?"

"My, my, I do love it when you girls are… forward," Dr. Shamal's sleazy smile faded slowly as he sized up the thin little girl and a concerned wrinkle appeared on his forehead. "Ke-ripes! When was the last time you had a decent meal, my dear?"

"I…" Chrome, who was blushing terribly looked suddenly up, "err, what?"

.

Meanwhile, approximately 10ft behind Dr. Shamal's back and hidden behind a partition screen, Hibari slid in through the open window and landed softly on the floor. About a second later, Yamamoto climbed in after him like a cat. They glanced towards the entrance, where they could hear voices, then they looked at each other and finally their eyes landed at the same time on the cupboard with a red cross on it that was fastened to the wall where they knew the nurse office's supply of medicine was being kept. As if by some silent agreement Hibari turned towards where Dr. Shamal was while Yamamoto quietly unfastened the tiny hinges on the cupboard and peered inside.  
And felt something sink quickly and heavily like a rock in the pit of his stomach…

The cupboard was packed! Tiny glass bottles with pills, little boxes with more pills – all neatly labeled – rolls of clean, white bandages, tubes of ointment… where was he supposed to begin?!

.

Oblivious to the quiet panic that was taking place behind him, Dr. Shamal ushered Chrome gently inside. "Please, come with me, I'm going to need to take a blood sample. Do your parents live nearby?"

"I-I-I-"

Yamamoto and Hibari's brilliant and spontaneous plan had a very serious flaw in it that neither of them had thought of (this is, incidentally, often the case with brilliant plans).  
Dr. Shamal was indeed a womanizer of astronomic proportions, and Chrome was a lovely young lady with a lovely short skirt – but what they hadn't taken into consideration was that Dr. Shamal was also a _doctor_ and in addition to being a few small pounds away from anorectic, Chrome had also spent the past weeks in a dirty, abandoned ex-mall.

_So…_

.

At the sound of two pairs of soft footsteps Yamamoto looked quickly up.

"That uniform isn't from Namimori, is it, did you come to visit a friend here?"  
"I, uh…"

The doctor! They looked at each other – crap! Now what? Both looked quickly around the room, frantically searching for a suitable hiding place.

Yamamoto nudged Hibari's shoulder and pointed mutely at the hospital bed, surely there must be room enough for the both of them underneath that. Hibari was about to shake his head and pull out his tonfa – screw the 665 other stupid bugs, he wanted to fight – but he barely had time to finish the thought before his surroundings suddenly flew upwards as Yamamoto's strong hands were grasping his shoulders, pulling him down hard on all fours, half nudging, half pushing him towards the dark gap between floor and mattress.  
He practically shoved Hibari, whose normally stoic features had by now contorted into a positively murderous expression (which Yamamoto didn't see because he was glancing back to see if Dr. Shamal had spotted them yet) into the back with both hands before crawling in after him.

"Do you have a death wish, herbivore?!" he snarled in an enraged whisper through his teeth. He had his back pressed against the wall and Yamamoto's hard, sculpted body pressed against his front. Amidst the haze of bloodlust he had a fleeting sense of déjà-vu.  
Then Dr. Shamal's polished black shoes appeared and Chrome's tiny sandaled feet following hesitantly behind him – in the next second, he also had one of Yamamoto's hands pressed against his mouth and the other clasped around his upper-arm. Hibari's eyes were spitting fire – he hadn't wanted to kill someone this badly since Bucking Bronco.

Yamamoto felt, on the contrary, a little happy and his die-hard optimistic brain thought that this wasn't half-bad. He had wanted to get to know Hibari for the longest time, and in less than a week he had… well, ok, so it didn't exactly _sound_ like the beginning of a happy relationship, but he had been on top of him (so to speak), been teamed up with him, had him in his room, touched him and even kissed him and now they were pressed up against each other under a bed (on top of a bed would've been better, but hey, Yamamoto was not a complainer) – it was quite the record, actually.

And he was still alive!

They lay very still and very quiet, and so close together that he could feel the faint warmth radiating from Hibari's body through the sheer cloth of his uniform. His pale skin smelled like rainwater and the fresh air of early mornings and wet cotton, and the rhythm of his breath was soft and warm against the skin on Yamamoto's face and neck. Yamamoto almost let out a dreamy sigh and thought to himself that Hibari Kyouya was the most wonderful human being in the entire world…

He wondered which level of hell he would end up in if he were to try and kiss Hibari again now. He wanted to.

He still had his palm pressed over that pretty little mouth though, and next thing he knew the world's most wonderful human being sunk his wonderful teeth into his hand and he had to bite his lip hard to strangle a yelp. They both opened their mouths at the same time and very nearly started speaking, when suddenly the mattress above them creaked and the candy-colored girl sandals disappeared from view.

Yamamoto's eyes grew wide and horror-struck and Hibari's eyebrows arched.

_Was he…? No! Was Shamal actually going to… do that?_

They heard Dr. Shamal's smooth, slightly accented voice, and the sound of plastic and metal scraping. "Alright, now just sit still and hold out your arm, like… that, yes. Good girl."

Yamamoto glanced up again, cocking an eyebrow in puzzlement. Was he taking a blood sample from Chrome?

"Uh, ok, c-c-can I, uh… can I leave now?"  
"Not yet, little senorita, we still need to test your blood pressure and take your measurements."  
"Do we… have to do that?"  
"Oh yes. Oh yes, we do. Follow me, young lady."

The second Dr. Shamal's shoes vanished behind the partition screen Yamamoto and Hibari crawled out from underneath the bed and scrambled hurriedly to their feet. Hibari's eyes darted to the medical supply cupboard. His delicate eyebrows arched questioningly and Yamamoto took a huge risk and nodded reassuringly, waving his palms as if to usher away a cat, signaling for Hibari to get out the window again – yeah, he'd get the medicine (even though he had no idea if he'd really find it, or even what to look for)!

He waited until Hibari slipped out through the gap behind the fluttering curtains before he turned to the little cupboard and made a quick decision to do what he always did in situations like these, he would _guess_!

Gokudera didn't think he did, but occasionally bits and pieces of lectures would remain stored on the somewhat whimsical hard drive of Yamamoto's brain, and he was just remembering one of them. There was something called the Placebo-effect, he vaguely recalled, and even though he didn't know all the details he figured he'd pretty much gotten the basics of it and he would rely on it now!

And so, with that in mind, he put his hand over his eyes and reached out his other hand blindly, grabbing the first random little flask his fingers came in contact with and stuffing it quickly into the pocket of his slacks. Casting one final glance over his shoulder just to make sure that Shamal still hadn't noticed anything, he sent a silent thank you to Chrome (whose role in their little scheme had grown totally out of proportions, apparently) and followed after Hibari.

_I'll repay you, Chrome, somehow, _he thought. _Only, I'll do it after we play baseball…!_

* * *

The baseball match that year was a visually pleasing affair. Yamamoto never found out where they had gotten fresh cherry blossom, but they were very pretty. And (thank _God_) they didn't make Hibari faint, much to Gokudera's surprise and disgruntlement. Truth be told, Yamamoto was fairly surprised himself. Who would have thought that the Placebo-effect thingy was actually the real deal?

He went into a sort of hyper-flow mode whenever he played baseball – he was super concentrated, all his actions automatic, coordinated by his never failing gut-feeling, and then afterwards he remembered almost nothing. This time wasn't very different, but he did remember a little though and even if he hadn't, both the Year book committee and the photography club had gone crazy with their cameras so there were plenty of photographic evidence.

(_*AN: I must admit, I know nothing about baseball – and even if it did, I doubt it would be very interesting to include it, so yeah…!_)

The first picture showed the four of them: there was him, looking super-exited, standing next to Hibari, whose features were blurry, as if he'd been caught in mid-movement and beside them stood Gokudera and Tsuna. Gokudera looked very fired-up (almost like himself, thought Yamamoto, only in a less happy-like way and more like he was hell-bent on proving something), while Tsuna looked a bit like a man stranded on a piece of flotsam in the middle of a shark infested ocean who had just accepted the grim fact that he would probably never make it to shore.

They won, of course, Hibari and he – as Yamamoto had secretly known they would, but actually it was only just barely and the reason for that was, surprisingly enough, Tsuna. Roughly half-way through the third round he was suddenly magically transformed into a roaring bundle of adrenaline. His gym uniform had ripped apart in a flash of light and left him wearing nothing but a pair of boxers with little frogs printed on them, and he had that orange flame on his forehead that Yamamoto was getting used to associating with Tsuna being about to do something awesome.

One of the pictures showed it as it happened, actually. The shot itself was something of a masterpiece, showing Tsuna at an angle as he fell backwards in a perfect arc, eyes wide open and with a dumb struck expression on his face and a glowing, orange pinpoint of flames spreading on his forehead, his gym shirt just about to rip apart. (The photographer was an, until then, unknown 1 grader who was afterwards personally invited to join the prestigious Photography club – which was a big deal at Namimori middle, since the president of the club was kind of a preppy snot)

He recalled, however, once he saw it again now, that he had also used to associate it with Hibari being about to go all crazy-killer on their asses – had, before Rokudo Mukuro or Superbi Squalo or Xanxus or Byakuran had barged into their lives, messed up everything about their regular routines and put matters on their minds that were generally far more pressing. Now it felt almost nostalgic, in a warm and fuzzy way, the way they had used to be terrified of becoming the targets of Hibari's seemingly random bouts of harassment (or, Tsuna had been terrified – personally, he'd secretly enjoyed the attention, and Gokudera had just been pissed-off).

He'd been at once impressive and useless to have in a baseball match, though, as one of the other pictures clearly showed. The picture was of an open palm holding a flat round disc, which, by squinting a little, one could just make out was actually a baseball. Yeah, Hibari Kyouya had hit each and every ball that had been thrown his way, and he had hit them so hard, in fact, that they never went anywhere…

Yamamoto thought it was pretty cool (not to mention completely unprecedented in baseball history), but a tiny and somewhat underdeveloped part of his mind was getting increasingly suspicious. Why the hell was Hibari going along with all of this? It wasn't like him. Of course he _had_ left before anyone could officially end the match, and he'd spent the better part of their final round trying to hit the burning, half-naked Tsuna instead of the ball, but he had still finished it and, before that, he had swallowed the pills Yamamoto had randomly snatched from Shamal's medicine cupboard without complaint.

Yeah, something was definitely up.

* * *

Chrome appeared just before the match ended and Tsuna nearly ran straight into her as he was running off the field in pursue of something to put on. Her cute little face wore, for the first time, an expression much like Hibari's most common one – greatly un-amused and annoyed with her eyes half-closed and her mouth in the shape of an upside down 'u'.  
She had a huge band aid on the inside of her elbow and thin gauze bandaged around her wrist. She held Mukuro's trident in one hand, like she always did, but with her other hand she was clutching a white cloth sack to her chest. There was a symbol on it of two green snakes intertwined – the universal symbol of apothecaries.

"Chrome!" Tsuna stared at her, and then at the medical pouch she held. She hadn't had that with her before, had she? "Where – where were you? Did you see the match? We've been looking for you!"  
"Where did you get that?" Gokudera, who'd been jogging out after Tsuna, pointed to the little bag. "That's a bag for medical supplies."  
"It is?" a worried little wrinkled appeared between Tsuna's eyebrows. "Are, umh, are you ok, Chrome?"

The girl looked up at them, opened her mouth as if to answer, but then closed it again and simply shook her head as if she was too fed-up to speak.

She had stayed with Shamal for nearly 2 hours and now had complete overview of her own medical situation, including a complete list of inheritable diseases she would probably not get, allergies she didn't have and vitamins she didn't get enough of. Plus she now literally dreaded the moment she would have to tell Ken that he had to get her oranges and multivitamins instead of just potato chips. She ripped the band-aid defiantly off her arm and threw it away without looking.

As far as she was concerned, Rain and Cloud owed Mist _big time_!

* * *

"You know, baseball was actually pretty fun," said Tsuna, smiling shyly into his large paper cup. "I didn't think I'd enjoy it, but I did." Then he scratched his cheek and gave a nervous laugh. "Except when Hibari tried to murder me with a baseball bat, of course… that guy is so scary!"

That evening school didn't close until midnight and almost none of the students left before they absolutely had to. The café and restaurant themed attractions were open, serving festival treats and ice cream, and the band club had rigged up a make-shift stage on the pavilion, decorated with glittering, white fairy lights and wreaths of paper flower, and rumors had it there would even be fireworks later on.

Yamamoto, Tsuna and Gokudera had found a vacant bench where they could sit more or less undisturbed.  
After their already legendary baseball match, none of them had been able to take many steps out of the changing rooms before they were practically assaulted by giggling girls and boys who wanted to pat their shoulders and/or enroll them in their own sports clubs. A couple of the boys even wore self-made T-shirts with the legend "_Hibari Kyouya can touch MC Hammer_" scribbled on in black magic marker.  
Yamamoto could tell that Tsuna was enjoying himself, but they wanted to talk privately and, thus, had gone to search for a private place where they could sit just the three of them. Kyoko and Haru, who had found Chrome and apparently managed to brighten her up a little and even convinced her to stay for the evening, had just left them, homing in on 2-D's cake stand like missiles.

He kept looking for Hibari, but ever since just before the match had ended it was as if he'd sunken into the ground.  
As if he'd somehow read Yamamoto's thoughts Gokudera scanned the crowd of students and asked, "where _is_ that asshole, by the way?" Then he wrinkled his brow and turned to Yamamoto. "And how the hell did you pull off the game today?" he asked, and sounded like he had been wanting to ask just that for a very long time. "With that disease of his and all?"

Yamamoto grinned. "Err, don't tell anyone, but we snuck in and stole an antidote from Dr. Shamal's medicine cupboard."  
Tsuna gasped. "Whoa! Really? Did you get stung?" then, "wait… who's '_we_', exactly?"

Gokudera squinted up at him in disbelief. "Are you dense? Didn't I tell you last night, he only keep aspirin in his office. There are antidotes, but they're in the other mosquitoes, retard!"

But Yamamoto just gave them another sunshine-smile and folded his hands pleasantly behind his neck. "Placebo-effect," he explained with some self-satisfaction.  
Gokudera opened his mouth and looked like he was about to say something very rude, but then he closed it again and seemed to mull the answer over in his head for a moment before nodding slowly. "That... actually makes some sense." And with a snort of laughter he gave Yamamoto's head a friendly push, "guess you're not a complete mongo after all, you baseball-freak."

But the mention of Hibari Kyouya had reminded Yamamoto of something else that he had meant to do, and now that he was feeling high on victory and the pleasant after-effect of a baseball-induced adrenaline trip he decided it was about time he did it. He would find and officially apologize to Hibari.  
He excused himself to the other two and headed for the school main building with a sense of purpose to his strides. He didn't _know_ know where Hibari would be, but Yamamoto was a people-person, and by sheer mental reflex he could make a pretty educated _guess_.

Because birds thrive under open skies…

.

The school roof was completely deserted, and from up here, the light and chatter from the festival below seemed somehow far, far away. The air was fresh and smelled of sesame oil and warm asphalt and hot earth and the smoky scent of firecrackers.  
And there by the water tower, lying on his back with his arms folded behind his head, was Hibari.

"Ah, Hibari! Ha-ha, I figured I might find you up here," he greeted cheerfully, feeling a bit stupid. He buried his hands deep in his pockets and grinned as he sauntered over and flopped down on the concrete next to Hibari, who glanced lazily up at him. "Go away, Yamamoto Takeshi."

"I, err, just wanted to apologize for the other day," Yamamoto went on as if he hadn't heard – and he might as well not have; when you had Gokudera for a best friend insults and general unpleasantness got old pretty quickly. And he needed to say everything now, quickly, before he lost the courage and the opportunity. "I'm sorry, it was totally wrong of me and I had no right to do what I did. I shouldn't have taken your phone and –," here he felt his face grow hot, "I shouldn't have, err, you know, stolen-your-first-kiss…" he spoke that last part very quickly and coughed. Yikes! What was he doing?! "It just sort of happened."

"What are you rambling about, low-life?" And in one, smooth motion Hibari got up on his knees so that they sat facing each other and he observed Yamamoto with eyes that were clear and dark. He was at least a head shorter than Yamamoto, and yet he somehow managed to make him feel like a small, furry mammal that's about to get bitten to death. Automatically he smiled, though he did so in a very careful way. He suddenly wasn't sure what to expect at all.

"You did not steal my first anything, Yamamoto Takeshi." He spoke in a drawling voice, like he was bored, but Yamamoto thought he saw a glimpse of something in his eyes that might be amusement.  
"R-really?" Yamamoto felt suddenly tremendously disappointed and his smile disappeared. "Then, err, who did?"  
He half-way expected Hibari to laugh at him then, and he was struck suddenly by the thought that maybe Hibari already had a girlfriend (because he could think of absolutely no natural way that such information would ever reach _his_ ears). But the thought didn't last very long because in the next instant Hibari's eyes became two narrow slits of dark, burning hatred and Yamamoto suddenly noticed that he was absently clenching and unclenching his own fists. "Irrelevant," he growled.  
_Nope, definitely _not_ a girlfriend! _"Wait…" Yamamoto looked up, puzzled. "You said 'steal'. How _did_ you get your first kiss?"

Hibari looked like he was about to punch him, but then his face suddenly smoothed over and changed into a smile – which looked even more dangerous than any scowl – and in a velvety voice he said, "like this, actually…"  
And then he put his hands on Yamamoto's shoulders and pushed him roughly onto his back. Climbing nimbly on top of him to straddle his waist he leant down until their faces were so close that his breath feathered against Yamamoto's lips and then, without warning, he crashed their lips together, hard and hot and violently.

It all happened so quickly that Yamamoto barely had the time to let out a small, startled gasp, and he still had his eyes wide open in wordless surprise when Hibari's lips touched his. At the first, electric thrill of contact he felt something explode in the pit of his stomach and, lying on his back with Hibari's knees pressing against him, Yamamoto thought that his innards might simply melt away like wax. He felt his own lips, stiff with surprise, relax automatically and mold to fit Hibari's.  
And then he was kissing back.

He brought his hands up to clutch at the back of Hibari's shirt, hard and almost desperate, massaging the warm skin through the cloth, up to the wing-like shoulder blades, pulling them closer together. Hibari bit his lower lip, gently at first, then a little harder, kissing him deeper. He licked the corner of Yamamoto's mouth and kissed him on the chin, ran his tongue along the jaw line so that their cheeks brushed together, before he took Yamamoto's soft ear lobe between his lips and nibbled at it almost playfully.  
And Yamamoto felt his breath grow heavy and panting, his thoughts were incoherent and all his knew was that he wanted this boy currently straddling his waist more than he had every wanted anything, and that he wanted him in a thousand different ways for a thousand different reasons. His body felt hot and feverish and he wanted it to last forever because it felt so painfully delicious.

"I want to marry you," Yamamoto panted incoherently, barely aware of what he was saying, while Hibari sucked on his neck, and for this impudence Hibari bit him hard. "Shut up."  
He stroked his hands down along the slender waist, drew his inner breath and placed one palm on each buttock, pulling him closer, squeezing gently – which earned him another bite, but it was worth it.

He was still on his back with Hibari on top of him, kissing away with sloppy abandon, when the fireworks started to go up. They took a brief pause from lip-locking and Yamamoto remembered something else that he had wanted to say, now that he was here.  
"Hibari…?" he said quietly, eyes fixed on the candy-colored bursts of stars and streams of light that painted the air and the skin on their faces green and purple and golden like champagne.  
"Yes." Hibari was also staring at the sky.  
"There's something else I should tell you about. You know those pills we got from Dr. Shamal?"  
"… Yes?"  
Hibari turned his head slowly back to survey him suspiciously. Yamamoto smiled nervously and tried to make it look disarming.  
"They were, kind of, aspirin. So, yeah, just, err, thought you should know, ha-ha!"  
"… I see." Hibari leant back on his knees and, with measured movements extracted his tonfa, one in each hand. "You have three seconds, Yamamoto Takeshi," he said simply.  
"Err, what? Ah, come on – Hi-Hibari?!"

.

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**Author's note**: ok, so I really, really, really hope you liked it. I feel awful for not updating, actually – I hate having unfinished business like this lying around (whether it's really good or really bad, you should start what you finish)!


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's note**: ok, here goes! Final chapter! It's kinda long. Thank you so infinitely much for reading – I LOVE you guys ^_^

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**Chapter 5**

"Good morning Yama – _Ah_!" Tsuna abruptly interrupted his own greeting and stared. It was 08:18 sharp and Tsuna and Gokudera had been lounging in the sun by the school entrance, waiting for Yamamoto to show up. "What- what happened to you _face_?!"

He had a huge, black eye (Hibari had _not_ counted to three…). It was roughly the size and color of an overripe plum and looked extremely painful. But, for some reason, Yamamoto still looked extremely happy. Even more so than usual, actually, Tsuna noted curiously.

"Ahaha! You are so stupid," Gokudera doubled over with laughter, putting his arms over his stomach and clutching at his own shirt, as if to keep his innards from escaping. Tsuna was reminded briefly of Lambo.

"You told that psycho about the aspirin, didn't you? _Moron_!"

But Yamamoto just chuckled cheerfully as a bright, rosy blush began to rise in his cheeks. "He-he, yeah, not my brightest moment," he said – though Tsuna thought his voice sounded very bright indeed. And what was he _blushing_ for anyway?

"You don't _have_ bright moments, retard," quipped Gokudera matter-of-factly as the three of them started to walk towards the school building and the gym.

.

In the early hours of the first Wednesday of the rest of his life, Yamamoto Takeshi was still blissfully unaware that he would be making his very first straight-out, verbal love-confession in roughly 24 hours (give or take), which was just as well because as it were his brain was already quite preoccupied with something else.  
Something that he had decided he wanted to do.  
Or at least try.

Wednesday, the 3rd day of the festival, was set aside for the homeroom attractions, and the full extent of Yamamoto's plan for the day was to hang around with Tsuna and Gokudera and try to get through the most interesting ones before the 3rd day could turn into the 4th.

Or, that _had_ been the full extent of it – until he'd opened his eyes that morning at 7 o'clock sharp and felt the ghost of Hibari's lips on his own, Hibari's skin under his hands and Hibari's knuckles planted in his eye and realized that he wanted more.

He had already made up his mind; nervous or not – he was really going to do it!

So when Gokudera tugged at his shirt and mumbled, "get a move on, jackass, let's get this over with", Yamamoto had grinned apologetically, scratched his neck and told them he'd catch up later. There was something he needed to do first, he explained.

"Like what? Get your _other_ eye fixed?" chuckled Gokudera.

Yamamoto had laughed at that, but on the inside he thought, _err, yeah… I probably will!_

Less than 15 minutes later he caught up with them again outside 2 – B's cake shop. His other eye appeared untouched.

* * *

Their 2nd and last challenge was revealed on Thursday, the 4th day of the festival, and turned out to be the Haunted House that homeroom 3 – C had put together.  
It was Tsuna who had chosen it, as Reborn had said in the gym that one of the candidates would get to pick, although _chosen_ might be a bit rich, because all he had really done was mention the Haunted House it in a completely different context as he, Gokudera and Yamamoto had walked past it the day before. And then Reborn, dressed up for the occasion as the Gieger alien, had overheard him while dangling from a lamp over his head.

Apparently this qualified as a valid selection and aside from Tsuna nobody seemed to think it was weird.

.

"OK, everyone, it's time for the 2nd part of the Mister Namimori Middle School Challenge Games!" announced Haru. She was wearing a huge pineapple suit today, clapping her hands and waving to get everyone's attention while Reborn, dressed as a matching mini-pineapple, sat on her shoulder, smiling innocently.

3 – C had made the Haunted House inside their own classroom and the hallway that went past it was hard-packed with students. They had formed a half-circle around Haru on one side and a much wider circle on the other side, where Hibari stood, scowling and pouting his lips, looking for the world as if he might chew them all to pieces should he lose his interest for just a second.

To Yamamoto, though, he looked just as terrifyingly beautiful as he always did, and he had to concentrate not to stare.

Haru turned to the 4 contestants and started to read the rules from one of her small, white cards. "One of you will be blind-folded," she explained and took out two long pieces of cloth, "… and the other will lead his companion through the labyrinth of the Haunted House. You will have to trust each other because if the leader gets freaked out it will affect you both! Sounds good? Here are your blindfolds!"

"Wait," Tsuna raised his palms in a gesture that clearly said _hold on a minute_, "that's it? That's really all we have to do?"  
"Ahaha, that sounds easy enough," laughed Yamamoto, folding his hands behind his head. His love-struck brain was beginning to clear up again now that he had a clearly defined task in front of him, a new game that he could concentrate his efforts on.  
"No way!" Tsuna's upraised palms began to shake violently back and forth. "I don't buy it! Seriously, Reborn, tell me what's hiding in there!"

But he was ignored…

"Don't worry 10th! I've got your back!" Gokudera had determination etched into every feature, and the way he grabbed Tsuna roughly by the shoulder was probably meant to be reassuring. It was as if he didn't notice the terror-stricken expression on his beloved boss's face at all.  
"Don't be such a wuss, Tsuna!" called someone from the crowd. "Yeah, you're such a chicken, it's just a Haunted House!"  
"Hey, shut your pie holes, losers!" barked Gokudera back as he tightened the cloth over Tsuna's face. It looked a bit like he was trying to strangle him, only he'd missed the neck by some inches and now it looked more like he was fastening a skull-shaping corset. Tsuna whimpered weakly, though it was hard to tell if it was from pain or dread.

"If I feel so much as a cobweb graze me, herbivore, I will bite you to death," said Hibari calmly as he fastened his own blindfold. "Aye aye captain!" Yamamoto replied cheerfully.

There were two entrances into the Haunted House. One of them had been the exit just the day before, but in order for the two teams to be able to enter simultaneously, it had been fashioned into a 2nd entry way. Only Tsuna pointed out the obvious flaw in this strategy. "Umh, guys? There is no exit… where does this things lead?"  
But his meek little voice was drowned out by the cheers from the students behind them.

Both Gokudera and Yamamoto had their own little fanclubs, and a lot of the noise came from them, but Yamamoto could hear other names being called as well. "Go Hibari!" shouted a couple of guys from somewhere in the crowd. Yamamoto could just make out the scrawling on their T-shirts, _"Hibari Kyouya ordered a Big Mac at Burger King – and got one!"  
_Hibari seemed to have gotten a fanclub of his own. But behind them again some girls were shouting, "Good luck, Sawada!" – which made Yamamoto chuckle, Tsuna blush like a ripe tomato, and Haru growl like an angry puppy.

"Alright, contestants! On my mark: ready… GO!"

And then they were inside!

.

If Yamamoto had been a more perceptive person, his first thought might have been that Tsuna's intuition certainly did seem to be infallible, because this, the labyrinth they had just entered, was clearly not fashioned out of cardboard and felt. In fact it looked more like someone had robbed a graveyard – like, the entire graveyard, because there were tombstones on either sides of them, and wilted flowers and even a small tree that was covered almost entirely with cobweb and looked like it had been uprooted.  
From somewhere that sounded far away he vaguely thought he heard a scream, followed by a small explosion.  
As it were he just thought, _cool, props nowadays look so realistic!_, and very carefully he put his hand on the small of Hibari's back.

Tsuna had been right – and oh how he hated being right – there really _was_ something in the labyrinth. Two somethings, actually, one for each team. But because Yamamoto, distracted as he was by the smell of Hibari's hair and the way his slacks moved when he walked, took a completely unexpected and very inconvenient turn, it never found them.  
Instead, they both found Tsuna and Gokudera, who, lead by Gokudera's unwavering sense of direction and impressive knowledge about labyrinths, took all the right turns and, consequently, walked right into all the traps that had been put out.  
Yamamoto thought he heard them a couple of times. Judging by the smirk on Hibari's face, he was hearing it too.

The labyrinth was really an impressive piece of work, though. The first part they walked through was fashioned like a cemetery, and there were gauze-like cobwebs hanging down from the ceiling, open graves and scary, howling noises that could sound like either 'just the wind' or like a wail or a howl. Then the walls turned to wood and it looked a bit like a tunnel in a mineshaft, with glowing, red and yellow eyes watching them from the darkness.

This was where the _something_ – a huge, robotic werewolf donated for the occasion by Giannini – was supposed to have jumped out at them. But just before they reached the hidden trigger, Yamamoto, who had been completely lost in his own thoughts, wondering if it would be ok to hold Hibari's hand now that he was supposed to be leading him anyway, tripped over a rock.

Instinctively he grabbed onto Hibari's sleeve and they both fell roughly through the wall.

Even before he hit the floor on the other side Hibari was thinking _…not again_. Why was it that every time he was alone with Yamamoto Takeshi they somehow ended up on the ground together like this?  
Anyway, when Yamamoto's body landed heavily on top of his own, effectively pushing all the air out from his lungs in one, painful 'oomph', he wasn't terribly surprised. Apparently muscles did weigh more than fat though, he mused absently, as he gasped for air. It felt like being hit by a falling piano, like in a cartoon.

They were in the original Haunted House now, on the outside of the terror-labyrinth Reborn had constructed, and the props out here definitely looked more appropriate for a high school festival project.

They were lying on top of each other, Hibari on his back and still breathing hard to try and catch his breath, but neither of them made to move away from the other.  
It wasn't a very romantic place, cold and dark and dusty and full of amateurish horror effects. And it probably wasn't the right time either by any traditional standards, but at that exact moment, Yamamoto felt something give inside him. His heart was beating wildly in his chest and he realized he was blushing violently.

Their faces were so close, and Hibari's breath felt so warm against his skin, and he looked so pretty…

And so, almost before he knew what he was doing, he leant closer until his hair tickled Hibari on the cheek and his mouth was just millimeters from his ear. And quietly, in a low and slightly hoarse voice, surrounded by gutted pumpkins and bed sheets spattered with dark red paint like blood, he whispered,

"Hibari… I'm in love with you."

And there it was. He had said it. The most frighteningly wonderful words you could possible say to someone, and he'd gone and said them. If he had been a different person, Yamamoto might have regretted it and perhaps criticized his own rashness (and, quite possibly, their mutual masculinity)…

But he wasn't. So he didn't.

The silence that followed was deafening. Then finally, after what seemed like a small eternity, Hibari turned his face up towards him, and it was amazing how you could just _tell_ that he was staring straight at you, blindfolded as though he was.

"I know."

He didn't hit him, didn't try to squirm away and when Yamamoto reached his hand down and circled his waist, he let it happen and his fingers came up to brush against the nape of Yamamoto's neck, slid up to tangle in his hair. He tilted his face up, a little closer, and suddenly Hibari's pale, plush lips were on his and they were kissing and Yamamoto forgot all about everything…

* * *

Two noteworthy things happened on the final day of the school festival; one of which was very surprising and one that… well, wasn't surprising at all, really.

The very surprising thing happened at 10 o'clock sharp, when Tsuna, Gokudera, Yamamoto and a reluctant Hibari had been lined up on stage and everyone was anxiously awaiting the results of the Mister Namimori contest. But when Haru opened the little envelope she suddenly stopped and peered at the card inside, the one that was supposed to have one of their names written on it. Then she shrugged and the grin returned.

"And the winner is… the super-cute baby, Mr. Reborn!"

The gym erupted in cheers.

"What?!" Gokudera looked furious. "How the hell could he win? He wasn't even in the competition!" Next to him Yamamoto was laughing and clapping his hands enthusiastically. So the monkey really was the baby after all, then – how fun!  
But Tsuna was simply shaking his head and rolling his eyes in a resigned fashion, as if he'd already seen this one coming. "Let it go, Gokudera. Seriously, he always does this…"

The not-so-surprising part followed quickly after as Tsuna turned to leave – and nearly walked face-first into Hibari Kyouya's chest. Luckily for Tsuna, his body managed to freeze up in terror before then. Old habits die hard, as they say. "Oh, heh, Hi-Hibari?" he stammered nervously, "what, umh, what's up?"

Hibari was giving him one of his long, emotionless looks, before suddenly whipping out his tonfas from God knew where and giving one of them a couple of impatient twirls. "Come on, herbivore," he drawled. "I haven't got all day."

"What? What the hell are you talking about?!" Tsuna put his arms defensively over his head, "I didn't do anything – please don't bite me to death!"

"The baby said that if I went along with this pointless game then I'd get to fight him," Hibari explained with a lop-sided shrug of his shoulder. "He told me to start with you. Now brace yourself, low-life!"

* * *

"Ah, you've got a date?"

It was Saturday. To celebrate their tied-in 2nd place in the Mister Namimori Middle School contest, the end of a crazy, eventful school festival and the beginning of a new one – namely the Namimori Shrine festival – they had decided to all meet up by the parking lot down at the beach to go and play games together at the fair and eat choco-bananas and watch the firework display. So far only Tsuna, Gokudera and Yamamoto were there, but they were waiting for Ryôhei and the girls to come join them as well.

Tsuna looked almost nonplussed for a second before his face lit up in a smile. "Wow, that's great, Yamamoto! Congratulations! Not that I'm surprised."

Gokudera scowled and whipped out a cigarette from behind his ear. "…tch! What kind of bimbo would wanna date an airhead like you?"  
Yamamoto's lips quirked with suppressed laughter, "_not_ someone you wanna call 'bimbo'," he said mysteriously and chuckled.

Gokudera shook his head and rolled his eyes, pretending not to care – an act he managed to uphold for exactly 3 seconds, because he was, of course, literally dying to know who the bimbo was. He put his hands in his pockets. "So… is it someone from school?"  
Yamamoto laughed and scratched his neck. "Yup!"  
"Someone we know?" Gokudera inquired, which made Yamamoto laugh even more. "Err yeah. Yes, you've met."

Gokudera's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Cute?"

"Gorgeous!"

Gokudera nodded slowly, still thinking. In spite of the constant flow of colorful and degrading insults, he really _did_ consider that stupid jock to be his best friend, after all, and wished him nothing but the very best (except for anything that involved Tsuna and/or being better than Gokudera in any field… except maybe sports since he'd sort of claimed that one before they met), though he would never say it out loud.

"So," he said again, leaning his shoulders back against the brick wall, "any potential there, baseball-head?"  
Yamamoto grinned giddily, like a school girl, and then he blushed like one, too. "Well, it's only our first date but… I hope so! I'm feeling pretty committed!"

Tsuna observed their little interrogation session with a small smile. It was almost kind of cute, the way Gokudera obviously cared so much about Yamamoto and still tried so hard (and _failed_ so hard) not to let it show. Personally he just felt happy on Yamamoto's behalf – of _course_ he'd have a date for the fireworks display, he was practically the most popular guy in their school after all!

He was thinking all of these happy thoughts when suddenly he stopped thinking them, because someone was approaching that was neither Kyoko, Ryôhei or Haru, and the bunny of survival that lived in the back of Tsuna's brain was suddenly rearing its head, wrinkling its little nose and wagging its ears, sensing that trouble was near.

In retrospect, Tsuna reckoned it was probably the aura that gave him away.  
Yes, that must have been it – because he somehow knew who the boy was when he approached them, even though he didn't immediately recognize him.  
Because it didn't really look like him, only, it _had_ to be him…

Tsuna squinted, unsure if he was really seeing who he thought he was seeing, and then he realized that yes, in fact he was. "Ah! Hi-Hibari?!"

Hibari Kyouya was, for once, not wearing his school uniform, and Tsuna realized that this was the first time he had ever seen the young Hibari in different clothes. He was dressed in a small black T-shirt, black jeans and a pair of bright white high-top sneakers. The clothes were simple, but on Hibari they looked somehow stunning all the same. He looked very handsome.

His expression was the same as always though, and he still radiated that dangerous _something_ that made Tsuna's instincts switch from idle to alert/prepare to escape mode in an instant. And that was how he knew.

Gokudera, who had been staring openly, gaping, snapped his mouth shut with an audible 'clack' of his teeth and resumed his scowling. "We're not doing anything illegal," he said defiantly in a growling voice and crossed his arms, like a dog marking its territory. "You can't punish us for being here!"

Hibari smirked. "Is that a… _threat_, herbivore?" There was a hint of amusement in his voice, and Tsuna thought he seemed like he was in something of a good mood for once. He quickly decided to intervene before Gokudera could do or say anything to change it. "Ah, ahaha, G-Gokudera, don't –!" he put his palm careful but firmly on Gokudera's chest and turned to Hibari, "did you come to watch the fireworks, too, Hibari?"

"I assume as much." Hibari glanced down at his heavy wrist watch and then, to their great surprise he looked directly up at Yamamoto. "It now is 8 o'clock sharp, August 18th. I believe we are now in session, Yamamoto Takeshi."  
Yamamoto laughed. His grin had, impossibly, grown even wider. "Ahaha, you don't say 'in session' like that," he said, "that's for meetings and stuff!"  
"This is a meeting, is it not," quipped Hibari, his pretty poker-face like a mask. "Let's get this over with before I change my mind."

He started to walk away from them, as if he had something important he needed to do, and Yamamoto practically danced after him. "Hey, Hibari, wait up! Bye you guys – see you Monday!" he called over his shoulder, waving his hand cheerfully at Gokudera and Tsuna, who stood staring after them with dumb-founded expressions. Then he turned to Hibari again, and fell into pace beside him.  
"Can I put my arm around you?"  
"No."  
"Can I hold your hand?"  
"Do you want to die?"

"Wait – did that just…" Tsuna stuttered and pointed and looked up at Gokudera, "_Hibari_ is Yamamoto's date? _That_ Hibari?!"  
But Gokudera just stared, his eyes wide open in disbelief, and then his lips tilted into a sort of hysteric half-grin. "Oh this is _priceless_…!"

Tsuna didn't pay very much attention to his particular choice of words at that moment, but he was reminded of them again when, roughly 3 minutes later, Ryôhei came jogging down towards them with the girls in tow, Chrome was with them too, all dressed up prettily in colorful yukatas and small, lacquered headpieces fastened in their hair. Kyoko looked incredible!

"Hey guys," called Gokudera before they had even reached them. His voice sounded oddly defeated, "Hibari's dating _Yamamoto_."

"WHAT?! Aw, come on, Octopus-head, you gotta be kidding me…!"

Tsuna stared. It was hardly the response he had expected, and for some reason Ryôhei's immediate reaction was to fish up his wallet from his pockets and pull out a 1000 yen bill. And then, to his even greater surprise Haru groaned, too.

"Ok," she said, sounding very business-like as she took out her own wallet, "what's the score?"

"Turf-head owes each of us a thousand because it wasn't Dino," said Gokudera and collected the cash from Ryôhei. They had formed a small circle now – Gokudera, Ryôhei, Haru and even little Chrome, who was actually smiling in a self-confident way – leaving a confused and suddenly suspicious Tsuna and an equally confused-looking Kyoko to stare at their huddled shoulders.

"I mean, one guy has the whip and the other has handcuffs…" Ryôhei looked disappointed. "I'm just saying, it would make EXTREME sense!"  
"Haru loses a thousand because he wasn't celibate," Gokudera went on, ignoring Ryôhei, "and it looks like _I_ owe you all a thousand since it wasn't Mukuro. Crap, I was so sure…"

"Told you it wasn't Mukuro," Chrome said sweetly as she took the offered bill from his hand.

"Yeah, yeah… tch! There goes my dream of seeing those two kill each other off. Hey, I want new odds on Mukuro going after baseball-head! Maybe I'll get rid of all three of them," he added darkly, then he turned to Chrome and handed the money he'd collected to her, shaking his head as he did. "How you guessed I'll never know."

Chrome continued to smile, although it looked a little bit strained, and she absentmindedly rubbed her arm where Shamal had taken blood samples from her. "Lucky hunch," she muttered.

"Wait…" Tsuna broke them off, shaking his head as if to try and wrap it around the situation, "you actually _bet_ on Hibari's love-life?!" _And, more importantly, _why_ were all the bets on guys…?_

"Oh yeah, 10th, you wanna join in?" asked Gokudera enthusiastically. "Turf-head and I got really bored after Golden Week this year," he explained happily, "so we started betting on things. We got bets on almost everyone!"  
"Actually I betted on Mr. Hibari not having a love-life," muttered Haru sourly. "See where that got me… I guess Mr. Yamamoto really likes a challenge."

"So, you really have bets on… everyone?"  
"Yes we do, 10th! Yes we do! And let's just say that if that Boxing Retard ever starts dating Miss No-brain, _I_ am going to be a very rich man!"  
"And if _you_ ever start dating Haru, I'll be an EXTREMELY rich man!"  
"Blow it out your ear, turf-head!"  
"I am _not _a no-brainer! And I'm gonna marry Tsuna, so _there_!"

"I'm a little sad that the school festival is over," said Kyoko. She seemed to have decided that it was better to simply ignore the gambling brigade and just talk to Tsuna instead, which, incidentally, suited Tsuna just fine. "I had so much fun!" She smiled, and Tsuna thought she was the most wonderful and sweet human being in the entire world. "It was too bad you didn't win the Mister Namimori title, though."

"Ah! No, no, no!" Tsuna blushed violently and shook his palms. "I, err, definitely didn't deserve that title. And, besides," he added somewhat somberly, scratching his cheek embarrassedly, "I seriously doubt if anybody actually voted for me at all."

"_I_ voted for you."

Tsuna looked quickly up. His ears were doing a reality-check, and he mentally crossed his fingers that Kyoko couldn't see how hot and red his face was. But Kyoko was cocking her head in that cute way and smiling her cute little smile; the smile that made Tsuna's stomach feel like a beehive.

It was, quite possibly, he thought, the high-light of his life so far.

* * *

Hibari and Yamamoto's footsteps echoed in the darkness of the empty park where soft lamps made regular islands of light on the paved pathway. Dry leaves, flower petals and scraps of colored rice paper blew past their feet. Above them the sky lit up with colorful showers of blue, purple and yellow light which blossomed at uneven but carefully planned intervals with faint bangs that could be heard from the beach where the fireworks display was currently in session.

And herein lay the true genius of Yamamoto's plan. Because while everyone else was down _there_, watching the show, no one came up to the park _here_, from which the fireworks could still be clearly viewed. He'd felt quite brilliant as he'd come up with this idea. Now he got to go to the temple festival and see the fireworks together with Kyouya, and they still remained a convenient distance away from the masses of people that made Kyouya's lip curl in contempt or, if he was in a bad mood, made his eye twitch and his fingers flex.

"This is a date." Hibari looked directly at him, his expression serious. It was a statement.

Yamamoto grinned and scratched his neck to cover for the blush that began to suddenly spread on his cheeks (and for no good reason at all). He looked up. A great red and green star was expanding in slow motion above them, until the tips became a drizzle of sparkles.

"It's supposed to be a date," he said finally. "I wanted to watch the fireworks together. Err, you know, _with you_," he added unnecessarily. "And I know how you don't like crowds, so I figured…" He spread out his arms wide to indicate their very quiet and very abandoned surroundings.

Hibari held his gaze for a moment and looked like he was thinking it over before suddenly, unexpectedly, he took Yamamoto's hand and slid his fingers in between Yamamoto's and didn't let go. He had a firm grip and his palms were soft and dry. There was nothing romantic about the gesture, really, more as if Hibari was making a statement of his own that he didn't know how to put into words.

"Don't make any assumptions, herbivore," he muttered. But his cheeks looked a little pink as he said it and Yamamoto chuckled.

And so they continued to walk, hand in hand.

"I've actually kind of liked you for a while," he admitted in a soft voice after a while. He grinned; happy, because it felt safe to say that now.  
"Yes, I figured," drawled Hibari in reply.  
Yamamoto's eyebrows arched, surprised, but then he laughed. "Ahaha, you're pretty sharp, aren't you. I guess I wasn't being very subtle about it."  
"Hmm, no, the message helped." Hibari's low, emotionless voice had a hint of amusement to it now and it looked a bit like he might smile.  
Yamamoto's own smile, however, faded rapidly. "Err… what message?" _No way…! Could it possibly be?  
_"_Hey Hibari_" Hibari began, and now he was definitely smiling_, "if that was weird today I'm sorry, I didn't mean to read_ –"  
"Huh?! You're kidding! You got that?!"  
"Yes."

* * *

_"Hey, Hibari…" Yamamoto put his hands in his pockets, "do you, err, do you wanna go on… like, a date?"  
He paused, crossed his fingers secretly, hoping that he wasn't blushing too badly, and added, "you know, with me?"_

_The silence was perfect.  
You could have heard a needle drop in the reception room just then, but Yamamoto remained happily hopefully smiling as if nothing even remotely out of the ordinary was up at all. It was not in his nature to search for black holes or open windows in situations like this.  
__Hibari, who was seated behind his desk, cocked his head and his eyes narrowed suspiciously. _

_"Go where?"_

_Wow, that went easy! "Oh, err, really?" Yamamoto could hardly believe his own ears and his face lit up like a puppy. "I was thinking we could go see the fireworks this weekend! Unless you have other plans," he added happily. __At this point of ecstasy two full sentences went through Yamamoto's brain. The first one was Holy crap I'm taking Hibari Kyouya out on a date!, quickly followed by yikes, this is the weirdest thing I've ever done, I think…_

_"Hmm," Hibari looked at him curiously, the hint of a smirk playing on his lips, "flattering, Yamamoto Takeshi, but I hate crowding. And I prefer your little party clan when I can clobber them."_

_Yamamoto wrinkled his brow. _Party clan_? Was Hibari talking about Tsuna and Gokudera?  
__"Oh no," he said quickly, "I meant, I want to take _you_ on a date, like a _date_-date. Just you. With me," he repeated, and then he added, somewhat sheepishly, "and, err, you know… not the others." _

_Didn't Hibari know what a date was?_

_Hibari's eyes narrowed again. "When?"_

_Yamamoto smiled and felt suddenly tremendously affectionate. He may not have gotten Hibari Kyouya's first kiss, but (if things went well now), he would, by the looks of things, definitely be Hibari's first ever date. _

_"Saturday," he said.  
"We'll go on Saturday."_

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**The End**

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**Author's note**: wow, it took me almost a full year to complete this, so I really am beyond grateful for your patience and encouraging reviews! Actually I also want to thank everyone for simply clicking on this, because this is one of the stories of mine that's gotten the most hits (which I think is extremely cool and proves that us 8018 fans are quite the dedicated bunch – yay us!) ^_^  
So, umh, I hope you enjoyed reading this – reviews would be… EXTREMELY appreciated!!!


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